Name: Smoked Trout Pâté
Total time: 55 min
Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients: 8 ounces smoked trout; 4 ounces cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces and softened; ¼ cup sour cream; 2 tablespoons mayonnaise; 1 scallion, sliced thin; 4 teaspoons minced jalapeño chile; 4 teaspoons lemon juice; 1 tablespoon prepared horseradish; ¾ teaspoon pepper; ½ teaspoon Tabasco sauce; ¼ teaspoon table salt; Crackers

Why This Recipe Works

This crowd-pleasing appetizer or party dip comes together in minutes and delivers punchy, irresistible flavors. Shredding the smoked trout by hand made quick work of the task while also ensuring that we could find and remove any small bones from the fish. A simple, flavorful mixture of cream cheese, mayonnaise, and sour cream created a creamy, tangy base for our pâté. From there, a number of boldly flavored stir-ins rounded out the profile of the dip. Sliced scallion added pungency and bite while judicious amounts of horseradish, jalapeño, and Tabasco brought a balanced heat. Lemon juice cut through the rich base and accented the smokiness of the trout.

Before You Begin

You'll need one jalapeño and one lemon here. We suggest using a good-quality refrigerated prepared horseradish, such as Woeber's Pure Horseradish. We developed this recipe using Ducktrap Smoked Trout. To quickly soften the cream cheese, microwave it in a large bowl for about 20 seconds.

Instructions

Using your hands, finely shred trout in medium bowl, discarding skin and bones. Add cream cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise, scallion, jalapeño, lemon juice, horseradish, pepper, Tabasco, and salt. Stir and mash vigorously with fork until thoroughly combined. Set aside for 30 minutes to allow flavors to blend. Stir once more and transfer to shallow bowl. Serve with crackers.