I am very attached to dips, they seem to me to have neatly jumped into that place in our lives formerly filled by the boredom of sandwiches or the fiddlyness of canapés. Both of these had the disadvantage that unless made a few moments before eating the bread, in the case of sandwiches, or the base of the canapé became soggy and pretty revolting.
Dips, because the base is added to the topping virtually on the way to the mouth, dodge this downfall.
Dips can also be as healthy as you want.
Serve them as crudités in the French style with raw vegetables and they can be eaten guilt free.
I have a good stock of all purpose dips which I produce for appropriate occasions, Hummus, Guacamole, stuff I call Norwegian Pate, and I have a good Rilettes of Smoked Mackerel which, while too stiff to be a dip, makes a good spreader.
(All these can be rummaged out in my recipe section)
Last night we hosted our book club and, because it was Valentine’s Night I felt I should come up with something a little extra.
I went to find a new dip. I was (and still am) convinced that with a little tweaking I could turn the old war horse of the seventies, chicken liver pate, into a dacent dip.
This however was not to be.
I could find no chicken livers .
The hell I thought let me instead experiment with producing a dip from the smoked Mackerel.
I did, and the result was terrific, here it is.

Smoked Mackerel Dip.
(You will need a pestle and mortar for this.)

4 Scallions
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Smoked Mackerel Fillets
Juice one Lemon
2 teaspoons of Horseradish Sauce
2 Egg Yolks
Good grating of Black Pepper
90ml (3 oz. ) Sunflower Oil
90ml (3 oz. ) Olive Oil

Trim the scallions and chop them finely.
Put these in a small pot with the 2 tablespoons of olive oil and cook very gently, covered, for about ten minutes until they are soft.
Take the mackerel off its skin and shred it gently with your fingers into the mortar. (be sure to discard any bones)
Pound this to a paste with the mortar gradually incorporating the scallions with any of the oil they were cooked in, the lemon juice, the horseradish and the black pepper.
Now change the mortar for a hand held electric beater and add the two egg yolks to the pounded mackerel.
Now in a very thin dribble, drop in the oils into the mixture beating all the time as you would make mayonnaise.
Once this is done, taste again for seasoning, mine didn’t need salt.

I am fairly sure that if making this in larger quantities it could be all done in a food processor.

Then transfer into a bowl for serving and serve with crackers, baked strips of pitta or (a la Francais) with raw veg.