Picnic Hamper part 1

well i've made half of it, and so far it all seems to have been successful.

so far i've made the Smoked Mackerel and Avocado Pâté. That was pretty straightforward, although the supposed Tescos Finest Smoked Mackerel Fillets still had about ten bones in each. it said they were hand filleted on the packed - well in which case they need to employ some new staff and sack the current ones!!

i chose the Finest ones because the packet size was smaller. the weight on it was less than 200g where as the smallest normal pack was about 220g and i would have only needed half of that. so after taking the skin off and bones out, i flaked it in large chunks. i had already blended the cream cheese, lemon juice and avocado so that when i added the mackerel i could simply pulse that so that the flakes didn't break up too much. i've put it in the ramekins and covered them with foil and they are now in the fridge. i'm just hoping the colour of the avocado doesn't spoil too much.

the Port and Stilton Pâté was also fairly straightforward, however when finished the colour wasn't good, but maybe that will change once it's set. but it tasted fine despite it's looks...

i made them whilst my pastry for the quice was cooking and i think i may have solved the issue of last time, which was that it just didn't seem to cook through.

but then when david noticed i had the grill tray in the small oven still he explained that when it is in grill mode the heat comes from only the top but when in oven mode it comes from the bottom too and the grill tray was probably blocking the heat coming from the bottom which is why it wasn't cooking through on the bottom.

so i took the grill tray out and within 10-15 minutes is was cooked through perfectly!

i also cooked the mushrooms and bacon out more this time to get rid of more of the liquid, then i added the rocket to wilt and then drained the lot on kitchen paper to make sure all of the water was released, whisked the egg and milk, added the cooked and cooled filling ingredients put back in the oven at a lower temperature for 40 minutes

seems to have worked. the pastry seems crisper than a bought quiche, but maybe thats because it has to sit on shop shelves for a while.

so still to make tomorrow morning is the salad, the melba toasts and the tiramisu