The healthy option – paté number 3

If you fancy a fish alternative then paté number 3 is for you – healthy and virtuous.

Smoked Mackerel Paté

250g smoked mackerel

250g quark (it's a soft cheese made from skimmed milk

– not nice on its own but great as a low fat product for healthy pate!)

Glug of lemon juice

Black pepper

Two tsps of creamed horseradish

To garnish – parsley, finely diced

sweet onion or finely chopped capers

Remove the skin from the mackerel, flake it and pop into your food processor. Add the quark and blitz with the mackerel, then add the lemon juice, black pepper and horseradish, blitz again. You can gauge the consistency of the paté to your personal taste – but it needs to be fairly stiff for piping.

Fridge until you're ready to pipe - then garnish with a little dried parsley, or sweet onion or chopped capers.

Any leftovers can be served with anything you like, toasted bread, rice cakes or add to warmed pitta slit, with salad. Add to cooked pasta, hot or cold – perfect for lunch on the run!

If you can't get hold of quark you can use cottage cheese - low fat of course.

You'd never know it was healthy!

Finally, the best savoury biscuits ever ...

Another piped paté

Paté number two is so easy and perfect for piping!

Cream cheese and cashew nut paté

1 carrot, finely grated

225g cream cheese

100g roasted cashew nuts, crushed to a rubble – not

to a dust!

1 tbsp of chopped chives

salt and black pepper

black olives – pitted and sliced to garnish

Mix all the ingredients together, box and fridge – complicated it isn't!

If you have leftovers it's yummy on rice cakes, gluten free cheese oatcakes, toast or even as a sandwich filling – a toasted bagel would be good. Waste not, want not!

Pipe onto crostini and garnish with black olives!

Paté number 3 up next …

Mushroom paté piped and garnished

A couple of tips before I show you ...

*A glug refers to liquid, usually oil or alcohol too in my culinary book. If you want to be reasonably accurate then a glug is what I'd call a generous tablespoon.

*A word about dry sherry. If you're not a sherry drinker – not my favourite tipple – then you might find it useful to know that, for the purpose of this recipe, and anything to do with enhancing the flavour of mushrooms, fino is the driest followed by manzanilla and then amontillado – any of the three will do very nicely. Alternatively you could use a glug of a good red wine.

A photo … you eat with your eyes …

How good does the paté look garnished with the sweet, baby orange pepper thinly sliced?

All that's left to do is to pipe onto crostini and garnish!

Next paté coming up …

Piped patés!

Alternatively you could be “cheffy” and forget the faff and make different patés – piped and topped with appropriate garnish they look very professional but most of all yummy!

I'd bake the bread slices without the paté topping so that it is crispy and allow it to cool.

Here are three easy, peasy recipes.

Mushroom paté

250g chestnut mushrooms

250g cream cheese

4 cloves of roasted garlic

30g unsalted butter

a glug of extra dry sherry*

salt and black pepper

2 tsps of tapenade – optional

For garnish thinly sliced circles of

sweet baby peppers

Trim the mushrooms, clean and then slice finely. Using a medium frying pan – mine measures 28cms in diameter - melt the butter and then add the sliced mushrooms with the garlic and sauté. Mushrooms release liquid and they need to be sautéed until it has disappeared – 10 minutes. 7 minutes into the cooking time add a glug of sherry. Continue sautéeing until the sherry has been absorbed – 3 minutes.

Let the mushrooms cool.

Blitz the mushrooms in a food processor, add the cream cheese and blitz again. Season to taste and leave to cool. Decant the paté into a piping bag with any leftover into a box and fridge until required.

Ready for action!

The third option …

...fancy a fish alternative?

If you're not a lover of fish but recognise that it should be part of your diet then disguise it!

Here's a different way of getting those Omega 3 oils :

Smoked Mackerel Paté

250g smoked mackerel

250g quark (it's a soft cheese made from skimmed milk – not nice on its own but great as a low fat product for a healthy pate!)

Glug of lemon juice

Black pepper

Two tsps of creamed horseradish

Remove the skin from the mackerel, flake it and pop into your food processor. Add the quark and blitz with the mackerel, then add the lemon juice, black pepper and horseradish, blitz again. You can gauge the consistency of the paté to your personal taste.

You can then add, for example, chopped onion, chopped capers.

Serve with anything you like, toasted bread, rice cakes or add to warmed pitta slit, with salad. Add to cooked pasta, hot or cold – perfect for lunch on the run!

If you can't get hold of quark you can use cottage cheese - low fat of course!

Very healthy – very virtuous – but more to the point very versatile and moreish.

Three perfect, easy peasy patés for you to choose – or may be all three?!

The second option ...

If mushrooms aren't your bag but you still want a veggie option, then try this on for size!

Cream cheese and cashew nut paté

1 carrot, finely grated

225g cream cheese

100g roasted cashew nuts, crushed to a rubble – not

to a dust!

1 tbsp of chopped chives

salt and black pepper

black olives – pitted and sliced (optional)

Mix all the ingredients together, box and fridge. If you are feeling really virtuous have a side of raw carrot!

Serve on whatever takes your fancy – rice cakes, gluten free cheese oatcakes, toast or even as a sandwich filling – a toasted bagel would be good.

It might seem an unlikely list of ingredients but I promise you it's delicious. The bonus here is that it takes no time at all.

This paté has everything :

the yummy cream cheese

the sweetness of the carrot

the saltiness and crunch of the cashew nuts

(you could even try honey roasted cashews)

What's not to love!

The third option … fancy a fish alternative?

Here are three easy, peasy paté recipes.

The first :

Mushroom paté

250g chestnut mushrooms

250g cream cheese

4 cloves of roasted garlic

30g unsalted butter

a glug of extra dry sherry*

salt and black pepper

2 tsps of tapenade – optional

Trim the mushrooms, clean and then slice finely. Using a medium frying pan – mine measures 28cms in diameter - melt the butter and then add the sliced mushrooms with the garlic and sauté. Mushrooms release liquid and they need to be sautéed until it has disappeared – 10 minutes. 7 minutes into the cooking time add a glug of sherry. Continue sautéeing until the sherry has been absorbed – 3 minutes.

Let the mushrooms cool.

Blitz the mushrooms in a food processor, add the cream cheese and blitz again. Season to taste and leave to cool. Decant the paté into pots or boxes to suit and fridge until required.

Serve with whatever form of bread that takes your fancy.

*A glug refers to liquid, usually oil or alcohol too in my culinary book. If you want to be reasonably accurate then a glug is what I'd call a generous tablespoon.

*A word about dry sherry. If you're not a sherry drinker – not my favourite tipple – then you might find it useful to know that, for the purpose of this recipe, and anything to do with enhancing the flavour of mushrooms, fino is the driest followed by manzanilla and then amontillado – any of the three will do very nicely. Alternatively you could use a glug of a good red wine.

Photos up next ...

Editor's Pick #3: Winter Menu - Treat of the Week!

Editor's note: It might not have escaped many but in the UK at the moment it's flipping cold! In-keeping with the recent brilliant weather, the next Editors pick is rather cheating as it's two recipes in one, but they go together so brilliantly they cannot be separated. Cream cheese and cashew nut paté and soda bread. Whack these out on a Sunday afternoon and you will be invited back again! Bit odd if you lived there in the first place but it's always nice to know you're still welcome.

My treat of the week is a simple, veggie recipe and one of my favourites – cream cheese and cashew nut paté – it has to be the easiest paté ever – here it is :

Cream cheese and cashew nut paté

1 carrot, finely grated

225g cream cheese

100g roasted cashew nuts, crushed to a rubble – not

to a dust!

1 tbsp of chopped chives

salt and black pepper

black olives – pitted and sliced (optional)

Mix all the ingredients together, box and fridge.

Serve on whatever takes your fancy – rice cakes, gluten free cheese oatcakes, toast or even as a sandwich filling – a toasted bagel would be good too.

Freshly baked bread is the perfect partner to the paté so here's an extra treat for a “comfort” lunch – soda bread!

The following Soda bread is the easiest and fastest, faff free recipe and the most reliable I've ever used.

Soda bread

170g self raising wholemeal flour

170g plain flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

290ml buttermilk

Pre heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Tip the flours, salt and bicarb into a large bowl and mix.

Make a well in the centre, pour in 290ml of buttermilk and mix quickly with a large fork until you have a soft dough formed. You may need an extra drop if your dough is too stiff but take care it should not be too wet or sticky.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly.

Form the dough into a round a flatten slightly. Place on a lightly floured baking sheet.

Slice an “x” on the top of the loaf and bake for 30 minutes – the base should sound hollow when tapped.

I use St. Ivel low fat buttermilk which comes in 284ml pots. If the dough is a little dry, add a drop of milk – just a drop! You can always add a drop more if required – you can't take it back.

A tip – Instead of flour I sprinkle semolina on the baking sheet and sprinkle a little over the loaf before baking, for a crusty top.

If you're thinking of making soup, serve it with thick slices of toasted soda bread, buttered of course.

Winter menu – treat of the week!

My treat of the week is a simple, veggie recipe and one of my favourites – cream cheese and cashew nut paté – it has to be the easiest paté ever – here it is :

Cream cheese and cashew nut paté

1 carrot, finely grated

225g cream cheese

100g roasted cashew nuts, crushed to a rubble – not

to a dust!

1 tbsp of chopped chives

salt and black pepper

black olives – pitted and sliced (optional)

Mix all the ingredients together, box and fridge.

Serve on whatever takes your fancy – rice cakes, gluten free cheese oatcakes, toast or even as a sandwich filling – a toasted bagel would be good too.

Freshly baked bread is the perfect partner to the paté so here's an extra treat for a “comfort” lunch – soda bread!

The following Soda bread is the easiest and fastest, faff free recipe and the most reliable I've ever used.

Soda bread

170g self raising wholemeal flour

170g plain flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

290ml buttermilk

Pre heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Tip the flours, salt and bicarb into a large bowl and mix.

Make a well in the centre, pour in 290ml of buttermilk and mix quickly with a large fork until you have a soft dough formed. You may need an extra drop if your dough is too stiff but take care it should not be too wet or sticky.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly.

Form the dough into a round a flatten slightly. Place on a lightly floured baking sheet.

Slice an “x” on the top of the loaf and bake for 30 minutes – the base should sound hollow when tapped.

I use St. Ivel low fat buttermilk which comes in 284ml pots. If the dough is a little dry, add a drop of milk – just a drop! You can always add a drop more if required – you can't take it back.

A tip – Instead of flour I sprinkle semolina on the baking sheet and sprinkle a little over the loaf before baking, for a crusty top.

If you're thinking of making soup, serve it with thick slices of toasted soda bread, buttered of course.

Before we move on to the next series of ideas – “pick a pie” – I thought it was time for a sweet indulgence … followed by the return of the rant.

Who knows what …

...will take your fancy over the Easter holidays when you've a long weekend to please yourself -

more to the point who knows what the weather will do this year – today it's snowing, with more promised and plummeting temperatures yet again.

It certainly doesn't make you think about Spring and the food you'd associate with it. It's difficult to strike the right note when you could be wearing thermal underwear and freezing or a sleeveless T shirt, shorts and flip flops!

We've covered all things chocolate for Easter, time to turn our attention to a few savoury bits and pieces to tempt you.

I'm sticking with the comfort theory and revisiting an old favourite or two.

There's nothing that says comfort better than home made bread – Soda Bread in particular.

Check out the Bread Label on the Blog – Saturday 19thNovember 2016 “Nothing is ever straight forward!” for the Soda Bread recipe or check out “I promised Easter treats and so …”  for a Cheese and Onion Muffin Loaf recipe too.

Two ideas to go with the bread – one cold, one hot.

The cold is the fastest paté you'll ever make.

Smoked Mackerel Paté

250g smoked mackerel

250g plain quark

2 tsps of creamed horseradish

glug of lemon juice

black pepper

Skin the mackerel, break up into small pieces and put into food processor. Add the quark and blitz with the mackerel then add the lemon juice, black pepper and horseradish, blitz again. You can gauge the consistency to your personal taste.

After you've made the paté you could add any of the following :

finely chopped sweet onion

finely copped black olives

chopped flat leaf parsley

finely chopped capers

Cut thick slices of soda bread, tear and spread liberally with the paté – that's lunch sorted.

If you've not come across quark it's a soft cheese made from skimmed milk – not nice on its own but a great product to use in this recipe – you'd never know it's healthy I promise you – it tastes great. You can use cottage cheese if you can't find quark.

The hot idea next …