
Brown Trout Pate

Ingredients
Makes 500g
400g trout fillets
100g light cream cheese
juice of 1 lemon
50g unsalted butter
1 tbsp fresh dill
1/2 tsp ground mace
pinch of salt and pepper
Method
First thing first you need to prepare the trout fillets, so leave the skin on but check and remove any bones before baking them in the oven at 180c or 356f for 15 minutes.
Once done leave to cool slightly whilst you get a small pan and put in the butter. Over a medium heat fry until foaming then still on the heat keep moving the pan in smalll circles until it starts to brown. Remove it from the heat and the temperature in the pan should do the rest without it burning.
To that hot butter stir in the ground mace and leave to cool slightly.
Now it gets very simple add the trout, butter mixture and the rest of the ingredients to a blender and wizz until smooth. Then either spoon out into ramekin dishes, top with a frond of dill and cool in the fridge before serving.
You can also spoon into old dip tubs before sealing, cooling and popping in the freezer until needed.
This Brown Trout Pate recipe is a household staple, I usually always have some on standby in the freezer. As a very average fly fisherman I sometimes, when I'm lucky, end up with more trout than I can eat in a sitting so needed to create something that can preserve it but tastes fantastic.
I took some inspiration from an dish called potted brown shrimp bringing that element of spice from the mace into the recipe as trout can handle a bit of spice very well. It can be made to use immediately as a starter or handles being frozen very well, then just defrost it when you fancy some on toast.

