Smoked Mackerel Pâté Canapés

Everyone needs a quick, easy to make canapé recipe, especially at this time of year. This Smoked Mackerel Pâté takes minutes to whizz up together and is endlessly versatile; it can be spread it on some thin oven toasted slices of baguette, topped it with grated cheese and grilled – super easy and really tasty too. Or, if you don’t want to be bothered with heating them up, you could just top the baguette toasts with the Mackerel Pâté, place half of a pitted black olive and a sprinkle of parsley on top and voila!

If you are having a buffet style table of nibbles, you can also serve the pâté in a bowl, surrounded by slices of baguette. I’ve often served it as a casual starter when I’ve had friends round for supper during the week. Everyone gathers round the table with a drink, to chat and whet their appetites on this pâté while I get on with finishing off the main attraction.

My version includes a little heat from chilli flakes and a warm spicy note from dry roasted cumin seeds – both work so well with the smoky mackerel and the sharpness of the lemon. You can change the spicing to suit your palate, of course.

Smoked Mackerel Pâté

• Time: 10 mins
• Difficulty: easy
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INGREDIENTS

• 3 fillets (approximately 300 – 350g in total) of smoked and peppered mackerel with the skin removed
• 1 tsp dry roasted cumin seeds
• ½ tsp chilli flakes
• zest and juice of a lemon (unwaxed) Use half the juice to start with and only add more after you have tasted the pâté, if it needs it.
• 2 Tbsp half fat creme fraiche
• 2 Tbsp chopped parsley

To Serve

• Baguette cut into ½ cm slices and toasted on a tray in the oven
• A little grated cheddar cheese

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Break the mackerel into large chunks and place all the ingredients (using just half of the lemon juice to start with) into a food processor. Pulse to combine. Try and keep some of the texture rather than reducing it to a homogenous paste.
2. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary – you may need more lemon.
3. Scrape into a container and refrigerate until needed.
4. Then, turn on the grill/broiler.
5. Cover the slices of baguettine with the pâté, top with a little grated cheddar and place on a baking sheet. Grill/broil until bubbly and browned.

The Smoked Mackerel Pâté also very nice cold topped with a slice of olive, and as a casual starter with a baguette.

© Selma Jeevanjee and Selma’s Table, 2013, 2014. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material, including photographs without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Selma Jeevanjee and Selma’s Table with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Festive Mini Mince Pie Pastries

I know, I know. I am a little late to the party with this one but as I have just made a batch for the second time this month, it struck me that these would be perfect to pass round if you are having people over for a New Years Eve gathering or to take with you if you are attending one. My son has just left to visit friends in Denmark and taken a tin with him as they went down a storm when he first took them to a Christmas party they were having in London a few weeks back.

I am not going to lie to you – these are time consuming to make, so if you can get someone or two, to help, then your mini production line will turn these out in no time at all. Or, if you have a ravioli attachment for your pasta machine, you can use that to speed things up. Otherwise, as with all things miniature, these can be a little tedious to churn out but let me assure you; they are totally worth it. A thin, crisp shortcrust base with a flaky, buttery, puff pastry top, encasing an orange scented little mouthful of fruity mince and dredged in cinnamon icing sugar – even those who dislike mince pies will like these.

Place filled pastry on a bit of parchment paper and use this to swivel the pastry round quickly as you crimp it.

Dredge with the cinnamon icing sugar

Remove to a wire rack to cool

Festive Mince Pie Pastries

• Servings: approx 50
• Difficulty: intermediate
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Adapted from BBC Good Food Sugar Dusted Mince Pie Parcels

INGREDIENTS

• 1 x 375g sheet ready-rolled shortcrust pastry
• 1 x  sheet of ready rolled puff pastry
•  300g  jar of mincemeat
• Zest of one orange
• handful of dried cranberries and sour cherries
• 1 egg, beaten
• 100 g icing sugar sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Remove both pastry sheets from fridge about 15 mins before use
2. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and paper/prepare two baking sheets
3. Tip the mincemeat into a bowl and grate in the orange zest and stir in the additional dried fruit
4. Unfurl the shortcrust pastry sheet keeping it on it’s wrapper and roll out a little more thinly
5. Using a 5 cm cutter, stamp out rounds for the base
6. Remove the trimmings – you can re-use these – and leave the rounds on their wrapper
7. Spoon on a good teaspoonful of  the mincemeat, heaping it on in a dome, but making sure to leave the base clear around the edge.
8. Unfurl the puff  pastry and roll out quite thinly – more so than the shortcrust as you are going to be stamping out larger rounds to cover the filling
9. Using a 5.5 cm cutter, stamping out slightly larger rounds.
10. Pick up a circle of puff pastry and using your index finger, dip into the  beaten egg and brush around the edges of the puff.
11. Place on top of the mince topped shortcrust rounds and shape around the filling.
12. Carry on doing this until all the bases are covered
13. Then, tear off a bit of parchment paper and  place one of the pastries on top of it.
14. Use the paper to swivel it around as you crimp the edges quite firmly with a fork , to seal.
15. Place on prepared trays; you can place them quite snugly as they don’t spread too much
16. Egg wash them using a brush
17. Bake for 18-20 mins , turning trays around and swapping them if necessary after 9 minutes, until golden and crisp.
18. While the pastries are baking, mix the icing sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.
19. At this point, you can re-roll the pastry trimmings and stamp out, fill, top, crimp and egg wash and bake when the oven is free.
20. Once pastries are out of the oven and still hot, using a fine meshed sieve, heavily dredge with the cinnamon icing sugar and remove to a wire rack to cool.
21. Pack into air-tight tins and sieve in some more of the icing sugar until ready to serve.

Festive Savoury Palmiers

festive-savoury-palmiers

I have been rushing about for the last 6 weeks on a fairly soul destroying property search, hence the radio silence here on the blog – I’ve been cooking but have had neither the time nor the energy to document any of it. Today though, I felt calm, the sun was shining and I was due to visit a friend recuperating in hospital who said he felt like eating pastry. So, in keeping with the season, I made these Festive Savoury Palmiers, managed to photograph them and pack some up before J got to them.  I also stopped to get some fat grapes and squidgy dates before setting off for The Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, which, incidentally is where I had J, sixteen years ago. After a lovely visit, a little wander along the Fulham Road and a restorative macchiato, I met J in Knightsbridge as the afternoon turned to evening. London is looking absolutely stunning in her festive finery. I just love a bit of  sparkle and London is full of it. We wandered around with me stopping to take lots of photos, headed to Soho for a bowl of ramen and finished up by walking through Trafalgar Square before getting the bus home. I am finally feeling festive!

Harrods, Knightsbridge, Carnaby Street and Regent Street

Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus

When time is of the essence, it is quite handy to have a few quick recipes up your sleeve and  Savoury Palmiers fit the bill very nicely. They are easy to make and quick to rustle up and you can tweak away at the filling to your heart’s content. Caramelised onions, chopped rosemary and anchovies are a fabulous combination. Sun dried tomato paste, cubes of mozzarella, basil leaves and black olives would also be very nice.

Festive Savoury Palmiers

Festive Savoury Palmiers

Festive Savoury Palmiers

Festive Savoury Palmiers

Festive Savoury Palmiers

Festive Savoury Palmiers

• Servings: 11 - 13
• Difficulty: easy
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INGREDIENTS

• 1 sheet of ready rolled puff pastry – they range from 320 g – 375 g depending on the brand.
• 300g of sausage meat – either de-skin some sausages, use sausage meat or at this time of year you can use some ready made festive stuffing
• 1 handful of chopped (cooked)  chestnuts. Save the rest for the sprouts on Christmas Day.
• 1 finely chopped banana shallot or a medium onion
• 1 handful of dried cranberries
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves stripped from their stalks
• 1 Tbsp chopped parsley
• salt and pepper
• 1 beaten egg for glazing

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 180 C/ 350 F and prepare a baking tray with parchment.
2. Using a fork or your hand, mix the sausage meat, chestnuts, shallots, cranberries, herbs and pepper (no salt at this stage) in a bowl.
3. Unfurl the pastry sheet (leave it on the paper in which it comes rolled up) and spread the sausage mixture all over it, as evenly as you can.
4. Snugly roll up both of the long sides until they meet in the middle. Use the paper to help you get started and don’t worry about the rolls being really tight as the pastry puffs up when it cooks.
5. Brush the pastry all over with the beaten egg.
6. Using a sharp knife, cut into approx 1.5 cm slices, laying each one out on the baking tray as you slice.  You might have to re-form them a little on the tray. Leave some room between them as they do spread out on cooking. I managed to get 13 slices out of my roll, including the ends.
7. Egg wash the pastry again as well as the exposed filling. Don’t skimp on this step as it makes a huge difference to how beautifully burnished they look once they come out of the oven.
8. Sprinkle over a little flaky sea salt and more pepper.
9. Bake for 20 mins and let cool a little before serving.

© Selma Jeevanjee and Selma’s Table, 2013, 2014. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material, including photographs without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Selma Jeevanjee and Selma’s Table with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Festive Savoury Palmiers

Marmalade and Sour Cream Loaf Cakes with Poppy Seeds

These Marmalade and Sour Cream Loaf Cakes with Poppy Seeds are brilliant to make for the  bake sale table at school fetes, which is what I first made them for. The addition of sour cream makes them incredibly tender and light. They were so good that I got an email from a dad who had bought one, asking for the recipe.

I do miss those school fetes now that J is at senior school. There was so much good will and pulling together to raise money for the scholarship fund as well as other charities. The Christmas fetes used to be spectacular themed events with parents, the Art department, the children and the maintenance department working in tandem to transform the school. One year the theme was Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with the full size bed and a paper mache family in it, in the entrance hall and Santa’s grotto awash with giant (cardboard) colourful sweets and candy canes. Probably the most spectacular was the Narnia theme, with a wardrobe complete with fur coats as the entry into the grotto and the school walls covered in white sparkly batting with thousands of hand made and decorated snowflakes and decorations hanging from the ceiling and on the walls. There was even a lamppost positioned outside the school doors. The fetes were really very special and I feel so privileged to have been a part of those happy times.

These Marmalade and Sour Cream Loaf Cakes with Poppy Seeds can be made with a hand mixer or in a food processor but either way, don’t take long to come together. A slice is wonderful with a cuppa and the cakes are also good to take in to work or as a hostess gift – delicious home made cakes are ALWAYS appreciated!

Marmalade and Sour Cream Loaf Cake with Poppy Seeds

• Servings: 2 loaf cakes
• Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
• Difficulty: easy
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Adapted from Jane Hornby’s Bitter Orange and Poppy Seed Cake for BBC Good Food

Each loaf cake cuts into 8 slices

INGREDIENTS

• 3 Tbsp thick cut marmalade
• 150g sour cream
• 175g soft butter
• 175g golden caster sugar
• 3 large eggs at room temperature
• 200g  flour
• 2½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• zest of one orange
• 2 tsp toasted poppy seeds

Topping:

• 5 Tbsp marmalade
• Juice of ½ an orange

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 160 C/320F
2. Prepare 2 x 2 lb  loaf tins with paper liners or butter the sides and lay a strip of parchment paper to cover the bottom and run up the short sides as handles.
3. Gently heat the marmalade  – you can do this on a medium setting in the microwave or in a pan on the hob.  Off the heat, stir in the sour cream . Let mix cool.
4. Place the butter in a bowl or food processor and beat/blend until smooth. Add the sugar and beat/blend for a couple of minutes. Add the eggs, one by one, beating/blending well each time. The mix will look curdled but it will all be ok in the end.  Scrape down the sides and beat/blend again.
5. In a separate bowl, measure out the flour, baking powder and soda, salt, poppy seeds and grate in the orange zest. Mix well with a fork or whisk; add the wet mix and beat in.
6. Stir in the sour cream/marmalade mixture.
7. Pour into the prepared tins  and place in the oven. I find it quite useful to divide up the batter by eye, leaving some behind in the mixing bowl and then weighing each tin to see where the remaining batter should go.
8. Bake for 1 hour. Check at 30 minutes and  if they are colouring too much, cover loosely with baking parchment.  The cakes are done when a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Give the cakes another 5 or 10 minutes if necessary. Mine were ready in 30 minutes but I have a very hot oven.
9. While they are in the oven, prepare the glaze; heat the orange juice and marmalade until reduced but still runny. It will take about 5 minutes or so. Set aside to cool.
10. Cool the cakes for 10 minutes on a rack in their tins.
11. Turn them out and spoon over the glaze while the cakes are still warm

Loaf cakes will keep for 3-4 days if wrapped. Use baking paper to cover the top and foil to overwrap with.