Seeded Crackers with proper smoked Mackerel Pate

Not one, but two, really easy and user friendly everyday recipes, that will drench your skin, brain and heart with all the good fats they need.

Getting collagen out of food is a slow process, so people committing to their skin health through, the introduction of broths, stews, slow cooked meats and fish, will like the respite you get from this recipe. Its not collagen we’re after here, thought there is a little bit from the mackerel, but the goo fats you get from the seeds.

Theres been some bad and bad press about seeds for our health with the new release of the animal diets that have become so trendy. On one hand the news around the use of animal fats and butter is true, we can now rule these fats as good for us - in moderation , but the bad reputation of seeds and seed oils have has come from the cheap blended seed oils on the market. Think your crisp and drys, your floras, and the worst of all is classic vegetable oil. These oils have been “ultra-processed” and they really have a lot of the pure goodness whipped out of them and in some cases added back in artificially. We now know these ultra processed oils that we’ve been sold as healthy are in fact incredibly bad for the boy - (I’ve written about fats if you want to know more - its a few posts back). They have the information wrong - seeds are very good for you and humans have been eating them since caveman days and they have been integral in our brain and heart health.

The thing with seeds, is that they are not delicious unless they are cooked. Dont get me wrong - I’ll eat bags of them, (for health), but I don’t actually enjoy them, unless they’ve been toasted. The first time I had these crackers was when I made the TV show, “Cooks to Market”. One of the guests came from Sweden and had made these incredible, very fine seeded crackers. I Assumed they would have been made with a dough base, but the process was simply soaking the crackers, blending a bit of the mix and then mixing it together. The chia and Flax seeds do all the work of a dough and as they bake they stick together.

Its a brilliant high protein base thats full of omegas and DHAs, but that in the cooking process gets a really delicious toasted seed flavour. They make the most brilliant vehicle for s many things. My top 5 are:

1. Mackerel Pate, cucumber and radish

2. Smoked salmon, cream cheese, dill, lemon and black pepper

3. Egg mayonnaise with celery salt and salted anchovies

4. Ricotta and roasted pumpkin, pumpkin seed oil and Parmesan

5. Cream cheese, honey and cinnamon

This recipe makes enough crackers for about 10 servings, but thats all down to what your idea of a serving is…?

Prep time 5 minutes

Cooking time 45 minutes

85g Sunflower seeds

85g pumpkin seeds

60g sesame seeds

50g chia seeds

35g milled flaxseeds

a really good pinch salt

200ml water

The Method for this really ill so simple. Put all the seeds into a mixing bowl, add the water and salt and mix. You leave it for an hour and give it another mix, it will have thickened up and there will be a light gel that forms.

Take a 1/5 of the mixture out and blend it until the seeds have broken up, but it’s not a pure paste. It will go white. Mix this back into the rest of the seeds and leave it for another 10 minutes.It will really be a pliable dough now.

Heat the oven to 170C.

I lay a sheet of greaseproof over a baking sheet and dollop 1/4 of the mixture onto it. Then get another sheet of paper and place it on top and then press it down to create a fine sheet of the seed paste. Remove the top sheet gently and then repeat with the rest of the mix. You can do this in batches if you don’t have 4 baking sheets. Bake for 30 minutes and then have a look. Spin the tray around and then finish for another 10-15 minutes. It should be nice and toasty and firm when it comes out. Leave to cool in the tray for 5 minutes and then cool on a rack. Break into large crackers. I like them to be wonky and natural. Store in a biscuit tin.

Now onto the mackerel pate. When I posted the video earlier this week, someone said that I was over egging the recipe, by using cream cheese, butter and sour cream, when you can just use plain yoghurt. You can, but I have two intentions here - to make a restaurant quality pate and also - When eating for skin, I want the fats. This isnt meant to be a low calorie pate. The point I’m trying to make is that we should be feeding our brains and skin with this collaboration of all kinds of good fats, but you can make a

For the Mackerel pate, all you do is add I packet (250g smoked mackerel into a small blender with 50g cream cheese, 30g softened butter, 1-2 tablespoons soured cream, loads of black pepper and the juice of 1/2 a juicy lemon. I add a spot of smoked sea salt too, but normal salt is also great. Then all you do is blend for a few seconds until just processed together. The more you do the smoother it will go and i like a bit of chonk! You can use it straight away, but its good to let it firm up for 2 hours in the fridge.

Serve it on the crackers with some finely slices cucumber and radishes.