Bank Holiday Recipes

SMOKED MACKEREL PATE

If you want a quick and easy but tasty pate to add to your weekend menu, this is my tried and tested
recipe, made for many years. It’s very good with crackers, breads, toast, with salads of most types, or
as a dip with crudites (it does firm up when refrigerated but serving at room temperature Is ideal).

1 pack of 2 smoked mackerel (check for small bones as you remove the skin and break up the fish)
50g soft butter

10ml horseradish sauce

10ml lemon juice

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Blend all the ingredients together, and garnish if desired with lemon and parsley.

SMALL PAVLOVA

If just for a small family, this is what | do…but double it for a dinner party. It can be made early in the
day and just put together before the guests arrive (but then do put it back in the fridge).

2 egg whites

115g caster sugar

1 tsp cornflour

1 tsp white wine vinegar

Preheat the oven to 160degC

Beat the egg whites, slowly adding the caster sugar, a spoonful at a time.

Mix the cornflour with the vinegar and add to the egg white mixture and beat again.
(it should be a lovely soft peak consistency)

Cover a baking sheet with baking parchment, and spoon the mixture into the middle of the tray,
spreading it out gently to make a disc with slightly raised edges. (Don’t make it too thin otherwise it
will break)

Put it into the oven and turn the oven down to 150deg straight away.

Cook for 1 hour then turn off the oven but leave the pavlova in the oven to cool.

When cool, load up with cream and fruits of your choice (berries, mango, bananas….). My children used to ask for it to be made with ice-cream rather than cream but obviously that can only be assembled just prior to serving.

(* recipes from another country 30+ years ago, given to me by friends rather than recipe books )