Express - Mackerel Pate

This a lovely and very easy recipe, it will take me longer to type the recipe up than make it. The recipe literally takes 2 minutes to make - and is delicious.


Ingredients

2 Mackerel fillets - if you like the peppered variety use that - I used a tin of them (100G)
1 pot of *Quark for the virtually fat free version - 250G
juice of half a lemon - or good dash of bottled if you don't have fresh

Black Pepper (omit if using peppered fillets)

*I used quark as its fat free, for a creamier texture use a cream cheese  (250G)

You could use Sardines, Salmon or Crab for this

Total Cost
 £1.60 serves 8 (at least - depends how thick you slather it on £0.30 per portion

Prep

If you have an electric processor pop it in and blitz for 30 seconds if you like a rough texture, or blitz until smooth if you prefer it like that. add Black pepper and lemon juice to taste.

If you have a hand held wand type thing will work just as well.

If you don't have any gadgets - stick the mackerel and quark in a bowl using a fork blend together - then us a wooden spoon to beat it - you wont get quite such a smooth pate but it tastes divine

You should leave to stand for 10 mins in the fridge to thicken slightly or if you cant waste, slather it on what ever you fancy. I have Rivetta.

It makes loads - enough to keep you going for a few days.

Enjoy

Pork & Chorizo Burgers - Guest Blog

My lovely Foodie Friend Sarah sent me this, yay fab recipe om nom nom. We love pork burgers in this house, much cheaper and healthier than beef.


  Pork (and chorizo burgers)

Spoonage – I think this is an easy 1 maybe 2 spoon recipe but Beth may look at it and revise the spoon number

Cost - £1.14 for 500g mince on offer from Lidl this week (if making chorizo ones a half pack of chorizo costs about £1.25) and 65p for 6 buns

So without chorizo and assuming you have some spices  approx £1.79 for 4 burgers and buns

with the chorizo element £3.04.  I buy little packs of chorizo split into 2 for paella and other dishes so I had the chorizo in the fridge.  The original recipe called for bacon but the burgers I did without either chorizo or bacon were lovely. 

Please be gentle with me this is my first time food blogging!  The amount of  ingredients make 4 burgers so it either feeds a hungry 2 folk or with salad and other bits serves 4.

Ingredients

1x500g pack of pork mince

1x clove of garlic

pinch of salt

some pepper

mixed herbs/sage or I used a few grinds of a polish set of mixed spices

If adding in Chorizo I left out the garlic clove and salt because its quite spicy and salty in its own right.

How to:

       

      1. Put the meat (and chorizo if using) in a mixing bowl.

2. Crush your garlic (if using) into the bowl

3. Add in the rest of your spices – ½ -1 teaspoon of mixed herbs and a pinch of salt and pepper

4. Mix it all together – it should get squidgy and stick together very quickly.  I mix by hand but if you don't like touching raw meat a wooden spoon would be fine.

5. If needed have a sit down and pop the meat in the fridge to chill 

 6. When ready take a handful of the meat mince and roll it into a ball then squish it flat on a baking sheet.

7. When they are all done you can pop them back in the fridge again to firm up slightly I normally get impatient so this doesn't take too long in our house but you can leave them for about  20 mins to let the meat rest

8. I put them onto cook on the lowest heat on a griddle pan to make sure that they cook through properly.  Pop them in and leave the for a good 5 mins to make sure that the underneath starts to cook.  If you don't then you tend to find they may fall apart if you constantly flick them over and over.

                                               9. Turn them every 4 or 5 minutes to stop them burning on one side and I cooked mine for about 25 mins to ensure they are cooked.

10.  Just recently I've been watching a few cooking programmes that suggest you can poke meat and if it feels firm to the touch then it is cooked.  I tried it with these and it seemed to work but to be on the safe side (because I have small children) I cut mine in half just to make sure they were cooked and they were.

Finished products in the pan:

Pork and Chrizo Burgers