Friday, 29 August 2025
Chef Angela has a recipe for Mackerel Pate and Wine expert Nigel has paired it with a Merlot. Here’s the details:
🍷 Here's the wine pairing 🍷
To pair with the smoked mackerel pate it’s a question of finding the right balance of flavours. Smoked mackerel has a rich, oily taste that needs to complement with the wine. Merlot gives the ripe raspberry and blackberry fruit which is the perfect accompaniment to the oily, smokiness of the pate without overpowering it…So that’s Barefoot Merlot at around £8.50 a great mellow red wine available from local supermarkets
❗️ Here's the recipe ❗️
300g smoked mackeral fillet, skinned and pin-boned
juice of 1 lemon
100g double cream
100g cream cheese
2 tsp lemon
❗️ Pickled cucumber:
1 cucumber
50ml white wine
50ml white wine vinegar
Tablespoon pink peppercorns
50g caster sugar
2 shallots, peeled and finely chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
50ml water
2 tsp chopped dill (stalks reserved), plus extra sprigs to garnish
2 tsp chopped chives
To make the pate, put the smoked mackerel and most of the lemon juice into a food processor and blend for 1 minute, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Add the cream and cream cheese and blend for 2 minutes until well combined. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt, black pepper and a little more lemon juice if needed. Scoop into a dish, cover and chill until required.
To prepare the pickled cucumber, halve the cucumber lengthways and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. With a potato peeler or mandolin slice the cucumber lengthwise in strips into a large bowl. For the pickling liquor, put the wine, wine vinegar, sugar, shallots, garlic and water into a pan and boil. Leave to cool then add a pinch of salt and pour the drained liquid over the cucumber. Chill.
To serve take 2 tablespoons to make a quenelle of the pate to place on each plate. Put a few spoons of the pickled cucumber on the plate and sprinkle with the pink peppercorns. Serve with the crisp bread.