Mushroom Paté with Red Asparagus

I was in the supermarket the other day, and they had a glut of reduced mushrooms for sale. And not just your boring button mushrooms either. Posh ones. Proper ones. Ones which I don't let my husband buy because I don't know how to cook them.

You see, as you will know if you've had me round to tea - I don't like mushrooms. This is pretty unlucky as they are in everything. Everything. I've mastered the art of picking them out of dishes swiftly. However... I am somewhat blessed in that I love the flavour - I'll even order things that come with a mushroom sauce and pick out the mushrooms, so I really don't mind mind cooking with them.

I seized the opportunity to be nice to my husband, for once, and I bought a pack each of Chestnut, Oyster, and Shiitake mushrooms, and a pack of red asparagus to see what that was all about too. It all came to about £2.50... Bargain.

 I came across this recipe whilst deciding what to do with them, and it suggested all the mushrooms I had bought, and very tasty it is too. This would make a great starter, or a nice dish at a buffet if you've got a vegetarian coming. NB - You need to start this recipe a few hours before you want to serve it, or the day before.

Ingredients

100ml vegetable oil
400g mixed mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 onion, finely chopped
200g unsalted butter
A large pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tsp nutmeg
1 chopped garlic clove
Juice of a lemon
Cracked black pepper

Instructions

The Day Before: In a large frying pan, heat the oil over a medium heat and add the mushrooms and cook for 10 minutes. Stirring occasionally till everything has softened. Drain well in a colander, leave to cool for an hour and then put into a covered dish to go chill in the fridge, ideally for 24 hours.

The Next Day:  Use a food processor/hand blender to whizz half of the mushrooms with 125g of butter, the cayenne pepper, nutmeg, garlic lemon juice, and some black pepper till it is almost smooth.

Stir in the unblended half of the mushroom mixture.

Pour into 8 ramekins, or a terrine if you want to serve it at a buffet. (Bear in mind you wont decant this to a plate, whatever you put it into should be what you serve it in.)

Melt the remaining 75g butter to top the paté with, this will give it a nice seal. Put in the fridge till cold.

You can serve this with some chutney (after going to this effort you can easily get away with store-bought!) I have served it with the Red Asparagus I picked up next to it - which you eat raw, making it a perfect stress-free dish. Leave a pepper grinder out on the table so people can give the paté a bit more kick if they require.

Enjoy.