After coming home from work and not eating all the while there, we feel quite hungry when we get home. We usually have some wine first then eat some leftovers at 2am before we call it a night. That is a bad habit but we fast with water for at least 10 hours in between eating.
I thought it would be fun and wiser to have some snacks while we sip, instead of the regular plate of leftovers warmed up at the end. I told Marc that we should be more French when we drink wine. We should sip and graze, while we complain about the lazy kids at work. The complaining wasn't part of the French thing.
On my day off I got some things ready, for our next after work soirée for two.
I am always stocked with mushrooms so I thought mushroom pâté would be a good start.
I usually use walnuts for my mushroom pâté. Cashews and almonds are fine but I prefer the deeper woodsy taste of walnuts with mushrooms. I don't know how else to describe it.
By the way it's really cold and I refuse to turn on the heat. We want to see how far we can go by wearing layers inside.
Mushroom pâté
14 oz mushrooms
170g onion
5g shallot
30g garlic
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon fresh or dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried sage leaves
5 or 6 sprigs of chives
2 cups toasted walnuts
1/2 cup ground almond
1/2 cup wine
Juice of half lemon
1/4 cup vegan butter
Salt to taste
These amounts are approximate and if you do it you should do it to suit your taste. Parsley, rosemary, or scallions could be added or substituted. A few tablespoons of balsamic vinegar or more lemon instead of wine. A little sweetener if desired.
Portobellos and cremini are the least expensive. For pâté, they're perfect.
I rough chopped everything including the garlic and shallot, because they would be ground up at the end.
While raw walnuts are more nutritious, I chose to pan roast them, in order to bring out a nutttier taste, I also find that this takes the edge off the slight bitterness that they have.
I chose vegan butter for cooking the mushrooms. This was started kind of like duxelles. Duxelles are mushrooms cooked down in butter. I also added red wine to give it the extra boost. Balsamic would also do.
The onions were cooked first in the butter. I made sure the butter was not too hot that it would burn.
When the onions were translucent I threw in the garlic, shallots, seasonings and wine.
Everything was cooked down for a while until the items were slightly golden.
The mushrooms were added to the mix at the end and rendered down until as much liquid was gone as possible.
I used a processor to grind everything to a smooth but not too smooth texture.
I added fresh chives at the end and some ground almond to firm it up to my liking. I wanted it to be spreadable.
For my next act I have a simple onion fig jam. I don't often eat something this sweet, but with a savoury onion flavor with added vegan cream cheese, I was sure we would enjoy this on a cracker or toast.
450g onion
200g dried figs
1/4 cup cane sugar
1/2 lemon juice and zest
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon fresh or dried thyme
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
Salt to taste
I'm not sure if it was necessary to soak the figs before, but I thought it would make it easier to chop.
I felt that a red onion would be my choice for this but any onion would do.
I diced it fairly small .
The figs were also chopped.
I used olive oil to sauté the onions. When they were translucent I added the figs, sugar herbs and balsamic.
I added lemon zest as well as juice then simmered until it became like a jam.
My herbs of choice were fresh thyme. I like the combination of onion and thyme.
In the past when I consumed dairy, I have had the combination of cheese and savoury jam or jelly. I remember liking it quite a bit so in order to have a vegan version, I went for the classic cashew cream.
Cashew cream
100g cashews soaked
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast(optional)
Fresh chives to your liking (I like a lot)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
Juice of half a lemon or 3 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon agave (optional)
The cashews were soaked for a few hours. Sometimes I soak overnight. If I'm in a hurry I just pour hot water over them and wait for twenty minutes.
Using nutritional yeast gives it a pseudo cheesy taste but without this, the added lemon is enough to make it an enjoyable spread.
After blending to a smooth cream, fresh chives were folded in.
I don't often attempt bread making, because of my rate of failure. This time I did.
Although I didn't bother adding the making of the bread to the post, I have to admit, that it was quite satisfactory. I used the oven heat to warm up the apartment for a while.
The bread was cut into rounds and toasted in the oven.
I added some olives and capers to the canapes.
The onion jam and cashew cream were great together. The olives were good with the mushroom pate.
Cucumber tomato and radish were a nice crown.
For some, this would be considered an appetizer but for us it was our late night dinner. We had quite a bit leftover which was made into sandwiches for lunch.
Thank you for joining me and I wish you all the best.
Photos taken with a Nikon D7500 and are of my ownership