Made in Britain winner: Cairngorm Smokehouse Pâté

Country Living magazine features local food producers every month - the Made in Britain Awards were launched by the magazine, together with Waitrose and Farmers Guardian, to reward those who are creating the best-quality and most innnovative foods, while keeping traditional skills alive. Five food producers of the year each received £5,000 from Waitrose to develop their business. The overall Made in Britain Food Champion (selected from these five) received an additional £5,000. Seven finalists were given the chance to have their product stocked in local branches of Waitrose. The Farmers Guardian Best Farm Entrepreneur will also receive £5,000 from Waitrose.

Subtle is a word seldom used about smoked fish pâté. But Cairngorm Smokehouse's petite pots of roast-smoked organic brown trout and crowdie cheese earn the description deliciously. A well-balanced pairing of two celebrated Scottish ingredients, the pâté combines dense caramel flakes of succulent, lightly smoked fish with the creamy curd cheese made by Highland crofters for centuries. "The natural tartness of the cheese complements the fish - all we add is black pepper and a squeeze of lemon," says Heather Ireland, who opened the smokehouse earlier this year with her husband, Craig.

Every brown trout smoked over oak whisky-barrel shavings in the Irelands' state-of-the-art kiln was born and reared at the Delfour Hatchery, the fish farm that they bought seven years ago. Craig had been in aquaculture since leaving school; Heather was working parttime as a GP, after giving birth to the second of their three children. Both longed for a family business, so when a trout farm in the Cairngorms National Park (where Craig once worked) came onto the market, they seized their chance.

She and Craig initially reared fish to restock rivers and fishing lochs - "It's rare to farm brown trout for the table," she says - and when they decided to expand into food production, converting to organic was a logical step (it is the only organic brown trout hatchery in Scotland) as Craig was already farming to high welfare standards. "Brown trout need plenty of space and high-quality, fast-flowing cold water, so they thrive in our large tanks, filled with water running off the Monadhliath mountains."

Craig also feeds his trout by hand to ensure they don't overeat. This enhances the superior eating qualities of a native fish that takes twice as long to mature as rainbow trout - the Pacific species most commonly farmed for consumption in Britain. "Because brown trout are slower-growing, their flesh is denser and they have a richer flavour," Heather explains. These plump, firm fish respond well to roast- (or hot-) smoking. "They're brined for 20 minutes before spending six hours in the kiln at gradually increasing temperatures,"she adds. "We fillet the fish before smoking so we get a lovely dark brown ‘skin' on one side."

It's this burnished outer layer that adds such appealing contrasts of texture and colour to the pâté. Heather uses a 20-litre mixer to break up the fillets before adding the cheese until just combined. The organic crowdie comes from Connage Highland Dairy near Inverness, which makes it with milk from its own herd. "We like to work with local producers from whom we've received much valued advice and support," she says.

Craig and Heather intend to keep their business small enough to maintain their close attention to detail, but will use the prize money to expand kiln space and developnew products. "We'd like to smoke other sustainable farmed and wild fish - sea trout from Shetland and mackerel from the west coast," she says. With online shopping to be running by Christmas, fish lovers have much to look forward to.

Cairngorm Smokehouse (01540 651632; www.scottishbrowntrout.co.uk)

Find all of this year's Made in Britain Awards winners here 

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