Smoked Trout Paté

Last week a friend dropped off freshly smoked trout. Uh-huh. I was torn between saving it for a special dinner and tearing into it right away. I did both.

I made two recipes as part of an appetizer course. This Smoked Trout Paté is the first recipe. It's super easy and big on flavor with the addition of fresh horseradish. Also, if you don't have smoked trout, use whatever you have on-hand - smoked salmon, smoked herring, or smoked mackerel would work just as well.

Ingredients serves 4 to 6 as part of an appetizer board

3 to 4 ounces smoked trout
3 ounces mascarpone cheese
milk, as needed
1/2 teaspoon prepared white horseradish, drained
1/4 cup fresh chives, snipped or chopped plus more for garnish
freshly ground salt, to taste (my trout was salty enough without any more)
freshly ground pepper, to taste
Also needed: crackers or flatbreads for serving

Procedure

Remove the skin from the fish and discard. Crumble or flake the smoked fish into a small mixing bowl.

Add mascarpone cheese and horseradish to the fish and mix in with a fork. If the consistency seems too dry, add a splash of milk until you get the consistency that you want.

Gently fold in the chives. Season to taste with salt and pepper. As I mentioned, mine was plenty salty from the curing brine. But I did add in some freshly ground pepper.

Spoon the paté into a serving bowl and sprinkle chives on top. Serve immediately with crackers or flatbread.

If not serving right away, refrigerate the paté, but take it out about 30 minutes ahead of time so it can come to room temperature which will make spreading onto crackers easier.

Comments

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