Smoked Mackerel Pate

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I'm a huge fan of Felicity Cloake regular column in the Guardian. 'How to cook the perfect...." I've used several of her recipes and they've all worked out very well. She cooks and reviews several chefs recipes for well known dishes. Then she creates her own 'perfect' recipe based on her results. I can only imagine what her home life is like "Hi family, this week we're eating only salad nicoise" in her attempt to test a range of different recipes and create her own.

I made this great smoked mackerel pate over the weekend. I'm in the process of a long move - so my kitchen things are in storage. I think the pate works quite well in these nice tea cups I got in the second hand shop!

Her recipe is over here. 
I followed it pretty closely - except I didn't use a blender as I prefer a coarser pate. The horseradish and dill off set the oily fish beautifully. A great dish that comes together very quickly. A great starter for a dinner party you can prepare the night before. Serve with homemade brown bread.

Pancake Dinner Extravaganza

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Course 1 - Potato Blinis with Smoked Salmon

So as pancake day approached we started to think of what we would make to mark this most singularly culinary celebration. If Christmas was changed to roast turkey day, and Halloween was barn brack day, when instead of going trick or treating/giving presents everyone would be at home making cakes/turkey. It will soon be national fish and chips day too - well in May! 

We thought we’d like to bring a random group of people together in our house, for a feast of pancakes. So we put an invite up on our own facebook, and within 15 minutes we’d reached our quota for the dinner.

We decided on a menu that encompassed a different type of pancake for each course
Starters were smoked salmon blinis
Main course was pancake cannelloni with bolognaise sauce
and ricotta and leek cannelloni with tomato sauce for the veggies
Dessert was Crepe Suzette - kaboom!

Smoked  Salmon and Potato Blinis

Ingredients

6 boiled potatoes
2 eggs
1/2 pint of milk 
about 2 tbsps four
creme fraiche (or cream cheese)
smoked salmon
chives 

The potato blinis were made by mashing about 6 boiled potatoes and combining this with 2 eggs, about 1/2 pint of milk and about 2 tbsps four. I just added things until I got the right consistency- very instinctive of me but not so good for blogging recipes! The batter should be thick in consistency, like whipped cream. I cooked them by getting a heavy frying pan really hot, smearing on some butter with a wadded up paper towel, and putting a tablespoon on the mixture at a time in the pan. I could do about 8 at a time. Cook on one side for about 3 or 4 mins, until golden brown and then flip. 

We served with creme fraiche and smoked salmon but you could top with anything- I was thinking cream cheese would be nice with roasted tomatoes. 

Recipes for pancake cannelloni and crepe suzette to follow before Easter I promise!

Linguine with Chorizo and Shallots

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Chef's secret

Lola had recently been reading 'Kitchen confidential' by Anthony Bourdain. In it he reveals the secret of delicious restaurant food, so wait for it - drumroll please........

It's Butter and shallots, so to put this to the test we devised this simple pasta dish - and by all accounts it was very, very tasty indeed. Maybe not the healthiest advice to follow everyday, but every once in a while, sure what's the harm. 4 shalots, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

about 10 slices of chorizo, chopped into squares

Butter
olive oil

2 tbsps creme fraiche

lots of grated Parmesan

S & P

Cook the linguine the way you like it. Meanwhile, saute the chopped shallot and garlic in a frying pan with a big dollop of butter until soft & translucent. Add the chorizo and cook until it has released some of its red oils into the pan. Add the cooked linguine to the pan with the shallot/chorizo. Stir in the creme fraiche, and another glug of olive oil and half the Parmesan. With a spoon and a fork, toss everything about until evenly coated. Season, and serve topped with the extra Parmesan.We're off to the Electric Picnic tomorrow morning, we may well be heading here for a few snacks during the weekend - looks great. If we're together enough we may even try to review some of the food.....we'll see