A rant and a mushroom paté …

… with a difference.

It has been a while since I felt the need to rant but I am doing so now in support of my friend. Chatting recently, setting the world to rights as you do, the subject inevitably turned to food and she told me a story about her favourite mushroom paté – that was – i.e. past tense – it is no more.

Can someone please explain why, when a product is in demand - to the extent that you're constantly asking when the next delivery is due - the product line is dropped. I've always thought of myself as a dinosaur, technologically speaking, but in these modern days of bar codes and stock control, blah blah – may be I'm missing something but doesn't all that information tell them – “crikey this is popular stuff, it's flying off the shelves”.

Here's my mushroom paté – I can't tell you what my friend's verdict is since she hasn't sampled it yet – I'll report back.

Mushroom paté

250g chestnut mushrooms

250g cream cheese

4 cloves of roasted garlic

30g unsalted butter

a glug of extra dry sherry*

salt and black pepper

2 tsps of tapenade – optional

Trim the mushrooms, clean and then slice finely. Using a medium frying pan – mine measures 28cms in diameter - melt the butter and then add the sliced mushrooms with the garlic and sauté. Mushrooms release liquid and they need to be sautéed until it has disappeared – 10 minutes. 7 minutes into the cooking time add a glug of sherry. Continue sautéeing until the sherry has been absorbed – 3 minutes.

Let the mushrooms cool.

Blitz the mushrooms in a food processor, add the cream cheese and blitz again. Season to taste and leave to cool. Decant the paté into pots or boxes to suit and fridge until required.

Serve with whatever form of bread that takes your fancy. Me – I've just baked soda bread – tee hee!

*A glug refers to liquid, usually oil or alcohol too in my culinary book. If you want to be reasonably accurate then a glug is what I'd call a generous tablespoon.

*A word about dry sherry. If you're not a sherry drinker – not my favourite tipple – then you might find it useful to know that, for the purpose of this recipe, and anything to do with enhancing the flavour of mushrooms, fino is the driest followed by manzanilla and then amontillado – any of the three will do very nicely. Alternatively you could use a glug of a good red wine.

I feel so much better for having got that off my chest!