Smoked Mackerel Dip

You might be wondering to yourself if a food blogger would dare to post a low quality picture of a vaguely pink bowl of meat and crackers on a paper plate. I dared to do that very thing. Because it's the simple things in life, baby. Paper plates mean less clean up. Few ingredients let the smoked fish shine. This dip might look lackluster; it's not. It's magically delicious.

Home-made crackers are insanely easy and heavily addicting. I usually try to steer clear of packaged foods, so crackers are a rarity in my household. No longer, since I found an amazing recipe at smitten kitchen for homemade wheat thins. While I highly recommend making the crackers for the dip, it is certainly not necessary. This fish dip would be fantastic on just about any crunchy vessel you can get your hands on.

To start, you need to get your hands on some quality smoked fish. I am fortunate enough to live by the ocean and have a fantastic fish market just minutes from my house. They smoke the fresh-caught local mackerel right outside their shop, and the fish is so succulent it could easily just be eaten on its own. If you can't find a nice mild white smoked fish, you could try smoking it yourself. I have not done this, and if anyone tries it I would love to hear about it.

Your fish is the star; simply add a few ingredients to accent the smoky fish flavor, grab your crunchy cracker, chip, etc. and enjoy this simple dip.

Smoked Mackerel Dip
4 oz smoked fish
2 t. cream cheese, softened
2 T. homemade mayonaise
2 t. Dijon mustard
2 T. finely diced onion
Few dashes of hot sauce (I use Crystal)
1-2 t. lemon juice
1/4 t. white pepper
Salt to taste

Start by chopping the fish into small pieces. It should shred apart easily. Add your cream cheese, mayonaise, and Dijon mustard and mix until combined. Then throw in diced onion, a few dashes of hot sauce, a squeeze of lemon juice, and the white pepper. Just barely stir until combined; the dip is much nicer when it still has whole pieces of fish and isn't completely smooth. At this point, taste the dip to see if salt is necessary. You could also add chives, parsley, dill, lemon zest, etc. I personally like the dip plain & simple!