smoked salmon pâté with peter's yard crispbreads

smoked salmon pâté

If my mother taught me anything about cooking it was about being prepared and keeping things simple. She loved hosting parties, but she always ensured that she had prepared some of the dishes in advance, keeping herself serene. I can only dream of serenity. My default position is more Tasmanian Devil, (dim-witted and short-tempered) than glamorous Rachel Allen, the cookery Queen of Serene! Which is why many of my mother's cold soup or fish pâté recipes, easily prepared a couple of days before the main event, are now part of my hoard of good party recipes. Effortlessly delectable; the perfect party food.

I mentioned going to dinner at Delicious Magazine, where Lizzie their food editor, served a fantastic canapé of smoked salmon and dill pâté on blinis. I didn't have any dill or buckwheat to make the blinis; otherwise I would have tried her recipe. However, I resorted to the old favourite and used one of the contents of my Delicious Magazine goodie bag, which were Peter's Yard artisan rye crispbreads, which were perfect.

I used hot smoked salmon for this recipe, which gave big meaty chunks of dark pink-orange smoked fish - perhaps not as pretty as using cold smoked salmon, but utterly mouthwatering. I also added a couple of spring onions, largely because they needed using up!

Serves 4 (or 6-8 canapés)
Skill level: Easy

ingredients:
200g hot smoked salmon (or half hot-smoked or half cold smoked salmon)
250g cream cheese
3-4 tbsp double cream, whipped
2 x spring onions, finely chopped (optional)
juice and zest of ½ lemon
½ tsp cayenne pepper
black pepper, to taste

directions:

1. Roughly blend half of the salmon with the cheese.
2. Whisk the double cream and continue to blend.
3. Add the spring onions, lemon and cayenne pepper and a little black pepper to taste. It is unlikely that you will need any salt as the smoked salmon will be quite salty.
4. Fold in the rest of the flaked salmon. Chill before using.
5. Serve on brown toast, blinis or crispbreads.