Someone in one of the food groups that I am in eats various cucumber salads with fish for breakfast. I thought that is a good idea and looked up recipes for fish with cucumbers. There are a lot of them on the web. The recipe is inspired by chef Simon Hulstone and I didn’t use his mackerel recipe because I don’t have fresh fish and but I did use his Pickled Cucumber recipe because it sounded so different and interesting. I also made the mustard seed pink peppercorn tuile for the beet tartar that I made recently. Both recipes make about twice as many tuile as you need and you will have some leftover. The good news is that these tuile keep well in a zip lock bag for a few weeks. Serving size is difficult to judge. This recipe makes around 3 servings of mackerel pate and cucumbers but you will end up with much more tuile than you need…You can also skip the tuile and use crackers or a thin toast instead.

Ingredients for around 3 servings

2 oz butter (room temperature) (tuile)

2 oz flour (tuile)

2 1/2 oz sugar (tuile)

1 egg white – lightly beaten (tuile)

1 1/2 teaspoons brown mustard seeds (tuile)

1/4 teaspoon pink peppercorns – crush with fingers (tuile)

1 long English cucumber – cut in thin slices

3 cups water

1 green cardamon pod

1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds

1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds

1 bay leaf

1 sprig fresh tarragon

1/4 cup good quality white vinegar

2 cloves

5 black peppercorns

1 Tablespoon kosher salt

6oz can mackerel drained – shredded (I used Trader Joes wild caught skinless boneless)

2 Tablespoons sour cream (or to taste)

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter – room temperature – or to taste

1/2 teaspoon prepared horseradish – or to taste

pinch smoked paprika – or to taste

pinch alderwood smoked sea salt – or to taste

pinch ground white pepper – or to taste

Directions

Make the tuile dough.

In a small mixing bowl combine the butter, flour, sugar, egg white, mustard seeds, and peppercorns. Mix well. Wrap it in plastic wrap and chill it a few hours or over night.

Make the pickled cucumbers.

Bring to a boil the water, cardamon pod, caraway seeds, mustard seeds, bay leaf, fresh tarragon, cloves, peppercorns and salt. Let cool and then add the vinegar and cucumbers. The longer this sits the better it taste. Refrigerate. Use when ready.

Make the tuile.

Set oven to 300 degrees F.

Leave dough sit out to warm up.

Fill a pastry bag with some dough with a writing tip.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.

This dough spreads so you want to do shapes in spirals. Put them in the middle rack of the oven. They are down when they start to brown. Timing will differ because the size and oven will differ. Mine took around 12 minutes. You can give the tuile a different shape if you scrap them off while they are hot and let them cool hanging off a small box, spoon, or pan.

Make the mackerel pate.

In a small mixing bowl combine the mackerel, sour cream, butter, horseradish, smoked paprika, smoked salt, white pepper. Adjust to your liking.

Optional some sweet pickled peppers, capers, fresh dill and edible flowers would be nice to add to this dish.

ENJOY!

A special THANKS!!!! to chef Simon Hulstone for his amazing recipe so I could come up with what I got here.