Delicious, simple and impressive! This recipe has been cooked up specially for starting the night with drinks and some bites, like at Christmas. Serving appetizers is a good way to start. What will be on the platter?
- Homemade Anchovy butter; it will only take about 10 minutes of your time and tastes so much better on that warm piece of bread fresh out of the oven.
- Mackerel paté with Ras el Hanout Chutney; make some extra... you do not want this to be finished. ;)
- Escabeche Mussels; In our restaurant this is a typical dish we make if we have leftover fish or seafood. This Spanish way of preserving in an acidified marinade keeps your product fresh for at least a month! We understand you probably don’t have leftover fish or mussels laying around, so in this recipe we start by making fresh steamed mussels.
- Smoked Halibut – some slices of tipically Dutch smoked Halibut finishes off this platter!
Ready to get to work? Find the complete recipe below!
Anchovy butter
Active time: 10min
Total tijd: 10min
Yield: 6-10 persons
Ingredients
- Canned anchovy fillets (MSC)
- 1 pack of unsalted butter (250g)
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley
- 2 tbso chopped chives
Preparation
Cut the butter in small blocks and let soften at room temperature. In the meantime finely chop the other ingredients. When the butter is softened you can easily mix it all together.
Profi-tip
In order to present the butter in a cheffy way we like roll the butter in foil so we can make nice round slices.
To do so, place a piece of cling film on a clean surface. Scoop the butter in the middle in a sausage form. Fold the cling film over and under and roll over till all cling film is used. This doesn’t have to be very tight. You can tighten it up by twisting the ends.
Put the butter in the fridge to make firm again so you can cut it into nice slices.
Mackerel paté
Active time: 10min
Total tijd: 10min
Yield: 6-10 persons
Ingredients
- 1 smoked mackerel
- 1el cream cheese
- 1el crème fraiche
- Small hand of finely chopped chives
- Small hand of finely chopped parsley
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 1tsp fine sea salt
- 3-5 drops tabasco
Preparation
1. Take off the skin of the skin and head of the Mackerel and debone by plucking the mackerel with your hands. Put all the filleted meat in a bowl and check again by putting in in another bowl with your hands.
2. Now you can add the other ingredients to the bowl of Mackerel and mix everything together. You can do this firmly so you end up with a pretty smooth mixture. Season to taste with extra lemon juice, pepper and salt. Et Voila!
Ras el Hanout chutney
Active time: 10min
Total tijd: 60min
Yield: 6-10 persons
Ingredients
- 250 white onion in rings
- 45g white wine vinegar
- 45g jam sugar
- ½ tsp ras el hanout
- Hint of cayenne pepper
Preparation
Cut the onions in rings and fry off in a pan with oil. Make sure not to color the onions. Add the ras el hanout spices and fry for 1 minute. Add the sugar to start off the caramelization. Let caramelize for another 10-15 minutes, when caramelized add the white wine vinegar. Cook further till the onions are soft and tender. Season with cayenne pepper and some more sugar if needed. Don’t be tempted to make it too sweet as it needs to be a nice fresh compliment for the mackerel.
Escabeche Mussels
Active time: 20min
Total tijd: 24hrs
Yield: 6-10 persons
In our restaurant this is a typical dish we make now and then if we have left over fish or seafood. This Spanish way off preserving in a acidy marinade keeps your fresh product for at least a month! We understand you probably don’t have left over fish or mussels laying around, so in this recipe we start by making fresh steamed mussels.
Ingredients
Mussels
- 1kg Mussels
- Small chopped shallot
- ½ clove garlic, chopped
- 200ml white wine
Escabeche
- 100g shallot, diced
- 2x small carrots
- 1x steng celery
- 16g garlic, finely chopped
- 8x slices lemon (approx 1 large lemon)
- 16g paprika powder (Spanish)
- 60ml white wine vinegar
- 16 black peppercorns
- Reduced cooking liquid from mussels
- 8g sprigs of rozemary
- 8g sprigs of thyme
- 16g bay leaf
- 16g salt
Preparation
1. Start with steaming the mussels. Put on a pan with a large surface and pre-heat. Fry off the shallot and garlic. Add the musses after 1-2 minutes and add the wine. Steam the mussels till they just open. We don’t want to cook the mussels, only open the shells. When the mussels are opened, discard the mussel to let cool a bit. Pass the cooking liquid through a fine sieve and put back on the stove to reduce by half.
When the mussels are cooled down you can carefully remove them from the shells. Do this with some care as you don’t want to end up with broken mussels. We want to look good!
2. Now let’s start with the marinade which will cook and preserve the mussels.
Fry off the shallot, garlic, carrot and celery for 5 minutes. Add the paprika powder, fry for a minute and add all the other ingredients. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Take a sterilized jar and put in the mussels. Pour over the warm marinade and let completely cool down. Once cooled down put on the lid and put in the refrigerator for minimum of 24hrs. You can keep it this way for at least a month!
4. Serve the mussels in a small bowl.
Tip: do you have any other leftover fish, seafood or even vegetables? Just add them, only make sure the marinade is enough to cover everything.
