I was telling the ladies at the WI craft group the other night about my fish pate meal. It was confusing because of them had brought a delicious pate made with crab and salmon to the Christmas party. What I meant to tell about was fish paste, which Brits seem to think is altogether a different kettle of fish (sorry, couldn't resist). The thing is, I'm not sure what is the difference between pate and paste, other than the fact that the latter is incredibly cheap (£4.27/kg or $1.94 a lb.) and made up of a half dozen or so types of fish. Well mine was; you can buy species-specific pastes, too. In fact, Wikipedia defines pate as a 'spreadable paste', so I'm going to stick my neck out and say they are the same.
Except that when you call it 'pate' (even better with the accent mark if you can bother), it sounds posh. When I told Bill we were having 'fish paste' for dinner, his face fell. It seems that 'back in the day' working class men found this stuff made into sandwiches on Thursdays, that being the day before payday and the cupboard being bare of all else. When Bill protested, I explained he wasn't getting a sandwich, but pasta with a creamy sauce that tasted of fish, at least that's how I thought it would turn out.
And it did.
And we both liked it.
Jack's recipe is here. I cheated and used a whole onion, a small sprinkle of chili powder and a squirt of oil. Her 'elusive' search bar is at the bottom of each post. If you put your ingredients in there you might be amazed at what she comes up with.
Have you tried anything new in the kitchen lately?
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