Mackerel Pâté
Three 6-8 oz smoked mackerel fillets, skinned and boned
4 tbsp butter, softened
½ tsp ground nutmeg
Pinch of pepper
3 to 4 tbsp heavy cream
Crackers for serving
Yes but not today. Tomorrow is Saturday and today yes Friday. She’ll be going to the markets to buy cod again mackerel maybe.
Fishday, the day of sacrifice. Not the flesh of warmbooded animals. Suppose you could eat reptiles too then. No they wouldn’t do that, that’s why there’s no snakes in Ireland they say. But a silly thing for one to believe.
But what did he mean. A paradox. A pishogue he said. Must be Irish. One of the League. What was the name of that professor. H. Higgens.
No Hyde it was, Douglass. Irish for Ireland. They say that they still speak it in the west. Even those who can’t speak English. The fishermen there have been fishing for thousands of years and will for thousands of more, Ireland’s halcyon days. Mackerel they called me.