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.

Summer Swedish Balcony Salad

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This morning it was raining - tipping it down. A soggy July, hot on the heels of one of the wettest Junes on record! Then this afternoon the clouds parted and out came the sun. After work I headed to the park to take it in. On getting home I knocked up this quick, Swedish inspired salad with the fridge contents, and some fresh pickings from the balcony. The oak leaf lettuce, dill, parsley, and sprouts - are all the fruits of my semi attentive labour

Ingredients

Oak leaf Lettuce

Dill - finely chopped

Parsley - finely chopped

1/3 cucumber - seeded and diced

2 beetroots - diced

1 spring onion - thinly sliced

some fennel seeds

Some crumbled feta

Poppy seeds

a squeeze of lemon juice

a dollop of good olive oil

a drizzle of honey

To Serve - a hard boiled egg and some sprouted mung beans

Method

Mix the lemon juice, olive oil and honey in a small dish until blended. Put the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl, drizzle over the dressing and toss. Top with sprout and boiled egg on the side. Hardly a recipe to change the world, but I had to start back somewhere.

Rainbow trout with herby salad

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Wow, the weather today is fantastic AND I have a day off work! That never happens! So I went to the Phoenix Park and cycled around the park for 2 hours on my old lady raleigh bike, a massive sunny smile on my face listening to summery music on my ipod. Bliss!

After all that exertion I definitely needed something healthy but satisfying so I stopped in to Fresh and bought a nice fillet of rainbow trout.

The garden has gone into overdrive so I used a handful of mixed herbs to dress the accompanying salad. Fresh, zingy, healthy and delish!

For the fish:

2 sprigs dill

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon fennell seeds

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 glug olive oil

Mash the seeds with a pestle and mortar. Place the fish on a large piece of tin foil. Chop the garlic VERY thinly and sprinkle half it over the fish. Add the sprigs of dill and the ground seeds. Drizzle over the olive oil. Bake at 170c for 10 - 15 mins.

Meanwhile make the salad.

Get a large handful of whatever herbs you have to hand (I used dill, rocket, rosemary and sage but you could include parsley, chives, basil, coriander, whatever you have, really)

Chop the herbs very finely and place them in a bowl. To this add about 4 tbsps good oil and a squeeze of lemon, to taste ( roughly half a lemon), salt and pepper. This is a delicious fresh dressing which can be used on loads of different salads.

Onion and Dill bread

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Swedish Bready-dilly-insecty goodness

We have a lovely Dill plant growing out back, so this was the perfect way to use some of it up and make delicious bread. There were a LOT of bugs on the dill, and I'm sure on or two of them must have gotten past me, even though I gave it a good wash. However, nobody cared because On our taste scale of 1-10 (1 being McDonalds, 10 being michelin star deliciousness) Lucy reckoned this got a 9, which is the highest yet, but secretly I would give it an 11. Yes it was bloody delicious and disappeared very quickly. Especially perfect with the left over cream cheese spread on it and some nice smoked salmon.

Thanks to Cafe Nilson for the recipe.

Ingredients: 1 sachet fast

acting dried yeast
500g strong white flour1 red onion, sauted
125 ml warm water
1 big bunch fresh dill, chopped
100g cream cheese
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
1 egg

Mix the flour, salt & yeast in a bowl and add the egg, creamcheese, cooked onions, chopped Dill and oil. Mix first using a paddle, then add the water in a slow stream, using a mixer with a dough hook to mix everything together. If there is still flour left at the bottom of the bowl add a very small amount more water, if its too sticky add more flour. Leave the dough hook on to knead the dough for 4-5 mins (or kneak it using elbow grease for 10-15mins) or until you have a smooth, elastic consistency. Oil the bowl and put the dough in, cover with oiled clingfilm.

Leave in a warm place to rise for

1 hour. Knock the

dough back and shape into 5 or 6 equal sized balls. Oil a big round cake tin with a heavy bottom, and put the dough balls inside in a circle. leave to rise again for 45 mins until the dough has

risen to the brim of the tin.

Bake at gas 7/250 C for 40 mns or so, or until its browned and the bottom sounds hollow when you tap it. Resist the urge to cut this until its cooled down as you will squish it! Most delicious thing ever

Lucy and the Bread