hot smoked trout | Eat the Earth

Last night we had a simple supper of homemade trout pate spread thickly on slices of pumpernickel bread topped with a morsel of homegrown lettuce.

The recipe was inspired by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s version in his book River Cottage Everyday. I had planned to follow it to the letter, but it seems that I picked up soft cheese rather than crème fraîche while out shopping, so I ended up making it up and tasting it as I went along.

We ate the pate on slices of the Barbakan’s pumpernickel bread, which was delicious – dark, sticky and chewy. Every mouthful felt good for you. It has been agreed we must eat more of it more often.

Here’s my version, without exact measurements – mix and taste, then amend. Alternatively follow Hugh’s recipe.

Smoked trout pate

Feeds 2 for dinner or 4 as a starter

Approx 250-300g smoked trout (I used a combination of smoke trout and hot smoked trout)
A couple of spoonfuls of soft cheese/cream cheese
A dollop of mayonnaise
A couple of teaspoons of English mustard
Lots of lemon juice
A good grinding of black pepper
A bunch of chives, snipped
Chive flowers

In a blender add half the smoked trout, the soft cheese and mustard. Blitz. Add more soft cheese if it’s a bit dry and the mayonnaise. Add a good amount of lemon juice and the ground black pepper.

Blitz and then taste. You want it to have a good punchy kick of mustard, but not overpowering. And a nice fresh lemony background taste. I added a tiny splash of water just to loosen the pate a little.

Flake the remaining smoke trout and stir into the pate – this gives a nice texture. Also stir in the snipped chives and the chive flowers which you should pull from the head.

Eat with pumpernickel or a dark rye bread and a crisp green salad. This would also make an excellent canapé – a tiny chunk of bread spread with pate and topped with a piece of lettuce or a sprinkling of chives and chive flowers.