Impress Your Friends with Mushroom Pate

How fancy does this sound? But it is so easy to create. If you can saute mushrooms for any other dish, you can make this pate. And it's so smooth and mushroomy (a new word). Spreads, dips, veggie pate are all favorites of mine. They are versatile, quick, easy.

I read several pate recipes online before I decided on these final ingredients and my own method of preparation. As usual, I wanted to use what I already had in the house.

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped sweet onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1 pound white button mushrooms, coarsely chopped ( I will not get into the debate about rinsing mushrooms in water vs. wiping with a damp towel. My preference has always produced the desired results. If your method does too, use it. If it doesn't, try something else.)
1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tsp fresh thyme
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

First, reconstitute your dried mushrooms in one cup of boiling water. Let them soak while you prepare the rest of the dish. In the olive oil, over medium-high heat, saute the onion and garlic for a couple of minutes to soften. Then add all of the fresh mushrooms, toss to coat, and continue to cook until the mushrooms really soften, start to wilt. Add the reconstituted porcini mushroom (reserve the liquid) and incorporate into the pan. I continued to cook until I could see the mushrooms had taken on a darker color. Then add salt, pepper, and thyme and the wine plus half of the porcini liquid. Continue to cook until the liquid has evaporated. I immediately blended this in the food processor and re-seasoned with salt and pepper. I let it cool almost completely before I packed it into the ramican and chilled it. I didn't want steam (water) forming and making things wet. Chill for at least 3 hours.

I was worried about getting the pate from ramican to plate so I lined the dish with two strips of wax paper.
I thought I would just lift out the pate using the wax paper as a sort of sling. The paper broke from the weight and moisture of the pate but no matter. The pate easily slid right out once I inverted the ramimcan onto the serving plate.

This is a great recipe to bring to a party and impress your friends (or your enemies, even better?). Bring this on a picnic (keep it chilled until it's time to eat). Eat it warm as a dip or spread or chill it and serve as a pate. Frankly, it was hard to resist just grabbing a spoon and eating from the food processor. Well, I did a little. Eat this on toasted pita, baguette, crackers, etc.

Any other veggie pate ideas out there?I'm excited to be submitting this to Chef Erik's Veg Head Carnival. My first time participating.