Kitchen Diary: a simple fish pate

Eliot was a neighbour of a friend.  He was a "theatrical bachelor" in his mid-sixties and had lived in his studio flat just off the Charing Cross Road for over twenty years when I met him in the late eighties.

He was a handsome gentleman and very well attired.  John, my friend at the time was an assistant booking agent and Eliot had been one of the actors who from time to time he had encountered along the way.  After a while they had become friends.

The studio itself was on the third floor of a Victorian mansion block, from the communal stairwell you entered directly into a large room with a recess at the back which was curtained and behind which was the sleeping arrangements.  Just to the side of this was a little inner hall with two doors, one to bathroom and the other to a little kitchen.

His kitchen was literally a large cupboard with a window, not much more than six feet square with a small service sink and drainer, a 1950's bright green pantry cupboard and a small one ring hob on a waist high shelf, lined up against a wall.  Just inside the door was a small table and chair which looked out of a window towards the stage door of a famous theatre.  John and I visited him a few times for tea, he thought me a bit of a bubble head to begin with (I was 19 when I first met him), but when he realised my love of food, he also showed an uncanny ability for imaginative preparations.  With very scarce kitchen amenities John told me later, this very small flat was routinely the centre for small scale receptions.  So handy was its location, Eliot's fellow actors would come by for impromptu theatre salons and literary discussions well into the small hours.

This quick fish pate (and a number variations on this theme) was particularly good.

• One small fillet of skinned salmon, poached and mashed
• One hard boiled egg, mashed well
• Two dessert spoons of chopped parsley
• The juice of a small lemon
• 25 grams of softened salted butter
• A dessert spoon of chopped caper berries
• A good helping (of say half a teaspoon) of ground black pepper
• A pinch of cayenne pepper

Mixed thoroughly together, with a little added vegetable or other tasteless oil if the mixture is too solid.

Eliot served this with thin slices of French bread, which he had griddled on a flat iron over the single ring of his hob.

Related food links:

Retro Entertaining, 1980s Style
Entertaining, Simple Asparagus Rolls
Entertaining, Three Best Dips
Entertaining, Mid-Week cheeky one - Bloody Mary Tomatoes
Retro Entertaining, Leeks Vinaigrette
Entertaining, Mid-Week cheeky one - Chilli Baby Aubergines