Smoked Trout Pâté

A simple pulse in the food processor turns four simple ingredients into a delicious pâté. Perfect for serving with crusty bread as an appetizer or as part of my favorite Sunday supper - a platter layered with cheese, bread and European butter. The zing of the horseradish butter helps balance out the richness of the pâté.

Smoked Trout Pâté with Horseradish Butter

Adapted from Good Food

Pâté

1 oz unsalted butter

Zest 1/2 lemon

160g pack smoked trout

1 spring onion, roughly chopped

Horseradish Butter

1/2 oz unsalted butter

1 t horseradish

1 t chopped parsley + a few whole leaves

Combine melted butter, zest, trout and spring onion in a food processor and blend until smooth. Place the pate in a ramekin and smooth the top.

For the horseradish butter, melt the butter with the horseradish and stir in the chopped parsley. Pour over the pâté and lay the parsley leaves on top with a few grinds of cracked pepper. Chill thoroughly to set the butter. Serve with a baguette and extra butter.

Summer's Liquid Gold - Gazpacho

Gazpacho is and always has been one my favorite dishes of summer. When I was growing up, my mom and I would buy cans upon cans of Pepperidge Farm's gazpacho, chop up a bevy of fresh vegetables and keep a big jug of the fresh summer soup in the fridge. Every time I opened the door to our refrigerator, I was tempted with its promise of cool refreshing flavor and crunchy vegetables.

Today I make my own gazpacho base and am always interested in new ideas for getting the gazpacho started. While flipping through Heart of the Artichoke by David Tanis, I came upon a genius idea I wish I had come up with first. Tanis grates fresh tomatoes on a box grater and strains the seeds out of the tomato puree for pure, unadulterated fresh tomato gazpacho starter. What you do after that is really up to you. I used a microplane to grate garlic and onion into the base and then seasoned with salt and pepper. Chop up whatever fresh vegetables you have on hand and call it a day.

I garnished this bowl with chopped jalapeno and olive oil. Check back on Thursday for directions on how to take the garnish up a notch with a vegetable salad encased in a ring of avocado.



Gazpacho
Method adapted from David Tanis
Serves 6

4 lbs fresh tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
1/2 of a small onion
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil
1/2 of a jalapeno for garnish

Rinse tomatoes and cut in half horizontally. Grate the tomatoes on the large holes of a box grater until you are left with just the skin of the tomato. Toss the skin. Strain the tomato pulp through a coarse-mesh strainer to catch the seeds and any large pieces of pulp. Peel the garlic cloves and grate on a microplane directly into the tomato starter. Do the same with the onion. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Divide among six bowls and garnish with chopped jalapeno and a drizzle of olive oil.