Mushroom paté, served on a plate with wholemeal bread, butter and a lime wedgeThis vegetarian paté is great for canapés or even as a starter. The recipe was very popular with my friends too, but somehow I mislaid the book, apparently during one of our many house moves. I tried to recreate my own version of mushroom paté but it wasn’t really as good as the original and I’d pretty well given up on ever seeing that book again.

Then Mr ND’s Dad came round for a visit recently and he had a book with him. “Is this your book, by any chance?” he asked me. Adding that he’d found it in a cupboard in his house. It was my book that had gone missing about five years ago! Woo hoo! I can only assume that it had found its way into his cupboard during one of the times we were between houses and temporarily dumped some of our stuff at his place. You might wonder why I didn’t just buy a replacement. Well, the trouble was that I didn’t know the name of the book or who had written it, and it’s quite an old book anyway (published in 1985).

Anyway, let’s get on with this recipe without any further ado.

Ingredients

(serves 4)

  • 50g (2oz) butter
  • 2 shallots or small onions, peeled and finely sliced
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed (optional)
  • 225g (8oz) flat mushrooms, sliced
  • 25g (1oz) fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs
  • 100g (4oz) cottage cheese
  • large pinch of ground nutmeg
  • large pinch of ground mace
  • salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 25g (1oz) butter, melted

To serve:

  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley, to garnish
  • lemon wedges

Method

1. Melt half the butter in a pan with a lid and fry the shallots or onions and garlic gently for 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms, cover the pan and cook for 15 minutes. Remove the lid, turn up the heat and reduce the liquid until the mushrooms are just moist. Melt the remaining butter.

2. Cool slightly then put the mushrooms with the breadcrumbs, cheese, nutmeg, mace, salt, pepper and butter in a liquidiser or food processor and blend until smooth.

3. Check and adjust the seasoning, and spoon the spread into a small dish. Cover and chill for 1-2 hours in the refrigerator.

4. Just before serving sprinkle the top with parsley. Serve with lemon wedges.

(May be kept chilled for up to 36 hours, covered tightly with clingfilm to prevent the flavour permeating the other foods in the refrigerator.)

The paté in my photo looks quite a bit lighter than it’s supposed to because I couldn’t get the lovely Portobello mushrooms that would have given it the extra Kodak* and flavour. I had to use oyster mushrooms because that’s all I could get but I used my favourite cheat ingredient, Marmite, for a bit of a flavour boost.

For an extra texture and flavour twist, you can try my mushroom and hazelnut paté, or if you’re a confirmed carnivore, why not make a chicken or pork liver paté?

*Kodak – while I was working as a commis in a commercial kitchen a more senior chef ordered me to “Get some more Kodak on that!” It turned out that I’d not browned the dish enough and he wanted more colour. Love the expression. People sometimes say, “There’s nowt as queer as folk”. In my opinion, there’s nowt as queer as chefs.

Comments

11 responses to “Mushroom Paté”

  1. i am a retired exec chef and i can honestly say i have never managed to come up with a perfect mushroom pate…this is brill totally brill ..thanks..a starter for veggy guests xmas day 🙂

  2. ps..i garnished mine with slices of the cook mushrooms and just ‘popped’ cranberries and will serve with Parmesan and walnut crisps…

  3. Not Delia

    Fantastic. Thanks, Bev. I hope you’ll continue to enjoy and comment on Not Delia – maybe even give some of your own recipes and cooking tips too. 🙂

  4. Ursula Ravenscroft

    Hi
    This is a fantastic recipe. I normally freeze my meat or fish based pate – making maybe seven or eight ramikins and then take them out when needed. My question is, can you freeze mushroom pate successfully.

    Thanks for your help
    Ursula

  5. Not Delia

    Hi Ursula

    I haven’t frozen this pate myself, but several of my friends have told me they’ve frozen it successfully. Good luck!

  6. Absolutly delicious, I follow the slimming world diet and found that I could use this recipe as part of my sym allowance! Now make it at least once a week and even the children love it! Thanks very much!

  7. Not Delia

    Thanks, Elen! It’s lovely to know that people are enjoying the recipes on Not Delia.

  8. Wanted a different starter for Christmas Day lunch this year have now got all the ingredients ready to make it tonight which is one more less thing in morning.will let you have my comments how it worked out later

  9. Not Delia

    Good luck, Anne! I hope you’ll like it, as most people seem to. Don’t forget to come back and tell us how you got on.

    Merry Christmas!

  10. Just made this, my first mushroom pate ever. Eaten lots but never made any. Its delicious and will no doubt go down a treat when the girls come to dinner. Doubled the mixture to try freezing it.

    THanks

  11. Just made 10 times the quantity – I came across a 2.5Kg box of ‘Cooking quality’ mushrooms at the cash & carry (I think they meant mis-shapes & odd sized ones rather than only for cooking).

    Seems OK, although not yet cooled. Now to find space in the freezer.

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