Mushroom Pate

I came  to this recipe randomly a few years ago, while flicking the pages of The Self Sufficientish Bible, by Bristol brothers Dave & Andy Hamilton — mushroom paté. In their recipe the Hamilton Brothers called for wild, foraged 'shrooms and also for cream and butter, so right off the bat I knew I'd be shaking things up, but I really liked having a base of an idea from which to springboard.  Since then I have dibbled & dabbled with it a few times, and I've gotten it down to something so quick and easy, and tasty and adaptable that I will often quickly whip this up.

Ingredients:

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or you can use ghee, or vegan butter, or a combo) - about 3-4 TBS

• Red onion - I use about half of a large onion, thinly sliced

• Garlic - 3-4 cloves, or as much or little as you like, chopped

• Mushrooms (stems and all, any culinary kind, I mostly use crimini/portobello) - about 10 ounces/300 grams, sliced

• Salt & Black Pepper

• Cayenne - about half a teaspoon, or as you like it

• Mustard - about a teaspoon, use the good stuff (or you can omit)

• Fresh herbs of choice (I like rosemary & thyme) - use your judgment as to how much

• Shelled Walnuts* - about a handful, optional - I tried this with chestnuts in place of walnuts once... yum

• Food processor, sauté pan, wooden spoon.

* I have made this with and without walnuts and both options are excellent. Don't let your lack of walnuts stop you from making it if you have all the other ingredients.

How to:

• In a large sauté pan, warm up a couple of TBS of extra virgin olive oil, or ghee.

• Toss in your chopped onion slices and let them sweat, stirring occasionally to avoid sticking/burning.

• Once your onions have nicely sweated, throw in the chopped garlic and stir.

• Add your sliced mushrooms, salt & pepper, cayenne, mustard and fresh herbs - and stir. At this point you may feel the need to add a little more olive oil or butter, or perhaps a teeny splash of water to coat the mushrooms. Avoid too much water though, if you use it, as you don't want it too thin.

• Savor the beautiful aroma filling your kitchen.

• Once everything is cooked, throw your walnuts in and just stir them around a little to get them warm (no need to chop).

• Transfer everything to your food processor and whiz it up 'til you get a paté-like texture (feel free, if you wish, to save a little of the mixture from the blender, in order to garnish).

• Transfer to a bowl or glass jar.

• Serve with carrots/celery, or Simone's " Flat Bread" - or right off the spoon!

• Garnish with a little sprig of thyme or rosemary, or some of your saved mushroom mixture.

• Eat and enjoy, and say mmm, ooooh, aaaah, yum!