We are gearing up for Christmas now and from this moment on we make no apologies for the glittery nonsense and rich festive flavours of our posts!
Here’s a delicious idea for the vegetarian centre piece on the big day; a richly flavoured pâté, wrapped in crisp filo, it is delicious served with all the traditional trimmings. I make a lighter sherry gravy as a rich red wine or port sauce can drown the flavours. (Recipes for all three will be up next week as we get all sassy and saucy!)
Ingredients (serves 4)
500g mixed mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 red onion, roughly chopped
2 – 3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp tamari soy sauce
ground black pepper, to taste
2tsp mushroom ketchup
2 generous tsp sun dried tomato pesto
100g ground almonds
2 handfuls of flaked almonds
1 pack of JusRol filo pastry (I use Jusrol fresh filo sheets because they are the best I have found!)
100 – 200g melted butter
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6
- Fry the onions and mushrooms in a little oil until the mushrooms begin to release their juices
- Add the garlic and fry gently for one minute without browning
- Remove from heat and stir in the soy, mushroom ketchup and pesto
- Return to high heat for one minute and reduce the liquid until it has almost disappeared
- Turn off heat and stir in the ground almonds and black pepper
- Stir the flaked almonds in gently and put the pâté to one side
- Lay a filo sheet on a baking tray and brush lightly all over with melted butter, top with another sheet and repeat, then repeat again
- Spoon the pâté onto the filo sheets and pat into a loaf shape
- Top the pâté with a further 3 sheets of buttered filo, brush the top with butter and seal
- Bake for 15 – 20 minutes until brown and crisp, serve.
If you want to freeze this in advance and whip it out to wild applause on Christmas day allow it too cool completely and then open freeze it on the baking tray before baking. Once it is frozen you can wrap it in greaseproof paper/foil/cling wrap. Defrost it overnight on Christmas Eve and then bake it when you are ready!
I am sharing this post with our sister blog Thinly Spread. Every Friday is Festive Friday between now and Christmas, do pop over to check out the other entries and add one of your own! Click on the bauble below to be whisked magically away!
