Three Mushroom Pâté #SundayFunday

This week the Sunday Funday writers are sharing recipes that feature mushrooms. The mushrooms must be the stars of the show, not an ingredient afterthought.

Stacy of Food Lust People Love, Sue of Palatable Pastime, Rebekah of Making Miracles, and Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm coordinate this low-stress group; we only participate when we are inspired. Stacy is hosting this week. Here's our line-up...

• Beef Tips with Mushroom Gravy from Palatable Pastime

• Boursin Stuffed Mushrooms from A Day in the Life on the Farm

• Cheesy Stuffed Mushrooms from Amy's Cooking Adventures

• Mushroom Spinach Curry from Mayuri's Jikoni

• Mushrooms in Creamy Gravy from Sneha's Recipe

• Quiche Lorraine Filled Portabella Mushrooms from Food Lust People Love

• Stir-Fried Cellophane Noodles with Enoki Mushrooms from Karen's Kitchen Stories

• Three Mushroom Pâté from Culinary Cam (you're here)

Three Mushroom Pâté

I started with a recipe from Gourmet magazine from 1997 and tweaked a bit to come up with this version. It's a pretty involved recipe, but it's well worth the effort. You can use whatever mushrooms you have available; I had yellow oyster mushrooms, lion's mane, and fresh shiitakes.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock

• 2 cups chopped yellow oyster mushrooms

• 2 cups chopped lion's mane mushrooms

• 2 cups chopped shiitake mushrooms

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

• 2 minced shallots

• 4 minced garlic cloves

• 1/4 cup wine

• 1 cup organic heavy cream

• 4 large eggs

• 1/4 cup ground almond meal, hazelnut meal works well too!

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs (I used flat-leaf parsley)

• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

• 1/3 cup panko bread crumbs

• 1-1/2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

• 2 teaspoons freshly ground salt

• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• Also needed: marinated mushrooms (such as these) and crackers for serving

Procedure

Butter a loaf pan, then line bottom and sides with buttered parchment paper.

Bring stock to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove pan from heat, add lion's mane mushrooms. Bring to a brisk simmer over moderate heat and simmer until reduced to about 1/4 cup, about 10 minutes.

Put a rack in middle of oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides. Add shallots and garlic and cook, stirring, until softened, about 6 minutes. Add wine and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Transfer mixture to a blender. Heat 2 more tablespoons butter in skillet over moderately high heat until foam subsides. Add one third of the remaining mushrooms and cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and cook remaining mushrooms in 2 batches, adding 2 more tablespoons butter to skillet for each batch. Add 2 cups sautéed mushrooms to shallot mixture in blender, and add remaining mushrooms to lion's main mixture.

Pour in the cream, then eggs and almonds to blender and purée until mixture is very smooth, about 1 minute. Add purée to lion's mane mixture and stir in parsley, thyme, bread crumbs, lemon juice, salt, and pepper until well combined. Pour mixture into loaf pan and cover with foil.

Put loaf pan in a larger baking pan and add enough boiling water to reach halfway up sides of loaf pan. Bake until set 1/2 inch from edges, about 50 minutes (pâté will not be completely set in center). Remove loaf pan from baking pan and let cool to room temperature on a rack. Refrigerate pâté in loaf pan, covered, for at least 6 hours. Bring pâté to room temperature before serving.

That's a wrap for my mushroom offering. The #SundayFunday group will be back next week to share Cinco de Mayo recipes. Stay tuned!