Smoked Trout Pate

While I wanted to cook lots of things for my foodie colleagues' departures, I was a bit limited in time... so I added this simple pate to the menu to provide a savoury alternative to the cakes on offer.

Smoked trout pate is wonderfully easy to make, and is a guaranteed winner at any party (or in this case work function). Best made the night before, so that the lovely smokey flavour of the trout can permeate the pate.

200g cream cheese
250g smoked trout fillets
2 tablespoons lemon juice
50g melted butter

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse till well combined - but don't over blend, as you want to keep some texture.

Put into your serving dishes and cover with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge overnight. Serve with a small serving knife with toasts or baguette.

Salmon with gunpowder green tea

This dish, like all my cooking, was a complete experiment, and I was very nervous as to whether it would work. I thought it might; salmon and gunpowder green tea seemed a potentially great combination, but I was far from sure!

Hmmm... how to do it?

I decided to do a sort of gravlax style marinade, but I didn't want to serve it raw, as you usually do with gravlax. So here is what I came up with, and I was very happy with the results - tasty and attractive, simple and delicious.


Gunpowder green tea salmon (Original recipe by Kiriel)

6 small salmon fillets
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp gunpowder green tea

Grind 2 tablespoons of green tea with a mortar and pestle. Mix in the salt and sugar, and rub into the salmon fillets. Add a splash of hot water to the 1 tablespoon of left over green tea and allow it to absorb the water, adding a little more if necessary. Add to the rub.

Allow to marinate overnight (I popped it into a ziplock bag) in the fridge. Rub off most of the marinade, and pan fry until the flesh has changed colour and edges are golden.

What's for dinner tonight?

How does linguine with asparagus, tuna and fresh lemon juice sound? I got all inspired to eat fish tonight, and whipped up the following experiment.


Recipe for one

Ingredients

1 organic lemon
1 small tin tuna in spring water
50grams dried pasta - Linguine
1 small bunch of thin asparagus
salt and pepper to taste
parmesan cheese

Snap the bottom off the asparagus stalks. The bottoms can go into the pot of water in which the pasta will be cooked (never hurts to add a bit of extra flavour eh?). While the pasta is on the boil, cover the asparagus and cook in the microwave (2 minutes on high). If you prefer you can steam the asparagus, one way or another, cook until bright green but still crunchy.

Drain the pasta and discard the asparagus stems. Stir the tuna and asparagus through the pasta, season and plate. Squeeze the lemon juice over the top, and for some extra oomph, add a tiny bit of the zest of the lemon shredded finely.

Grate parmesan on top and serve.