Mushroom Pâté

Made with two kinds of mushrooms, walnuts and sage, this pâté is rich, refined, easy to prepare and it’s vegan. It will be just the thing to serve on your holiday table that will make both vegetarians and carnivores happy. At around this time two years ago my husband and I were celebrating a return visit to one of our favorite islands, Corsica. We had been two times before but too many years had passed in between. I don’t remember now how the French island came to land at the top of our list of places to see but we’re glad we took that 40-minute ferry ride from the northern tip of Sardinia and set foot on Bonifacio, the medieval harbor town on the southern tip of Corsica, over 10 years ago. My husband, sick with the flu, drove us to Portio-Vecchio where we secured the first hotel room we could find so he could sleep for the next day and a half before continuing our Corsican adventure. Knocking the flu out of the way early on that first visit the rest of the trip was one memorable experience after another–as were the two visits after that. Corsica is French territory but has a culture distinctly different than what I’ve experienced on mainland France. Corsu, the Corsican language which is very similar to Italian, is still spoken by 35% of the island’s people today. Centuries of occupation by the Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans and Genoese along with invasions from the Vandals, Goths and Moors have all left their mark. Aside from the ritzy towns of Calvi and Porto-Vecchio, much of Corsica is rural, undeveloped, and–if you like getting lost in another culture, rustic villages, rocky cliffs, turquoise waters–it is also magical. You won’t find hundred-room hotels in Corse but with every turn on the island’s coastal roads you’ll declare each of the countless beaches you encounter the most beautiful one you’ve ever seen. Corsican cuisine is diverse and unique, too. An island with a largely mountainous terrain, Corsican cuisine is a mix of alpine, Mediterranean, Italian and French. Wild boar reigns supreme on most menus and the markets boast every flavor pâté and terrine you can imagine. My husband returns for Corsica’s beaches but for me, the pâté is a contender for the #1 slot. That first Corsican trip preceded the annual French Riviera trips that would become a tradition for us so really, it was in Corsica that I first set foot inside a French market…and seeing at least a dozen varieties of pâté in one place made my heart skip a beat. I couldn’t get enough. Infused with chestnuts, hazelnuts, figs, olives, oranges I had to try them all. But as much as I love liver dishes (hello foie gras and fried chicken liver), I have no interest in taking statins. Red meat and pork have always been exceptions rather than the rule in my home and recently I’ve cut back on chicken, too. And even though I occasionally share meat dishes here, most of the week we are vegetarians. This mushroom pâté came about out of my desire to create a vegan version of one of my favorite sandwiches, banh mi. An important component of classic Vietnamese banh mi is French pâté. As happy as I am that this recipe brings me one step closer to the vegan sandwich of my dreams this turned out to be much more than just a piece of something else. Mushroom pâté may be new in my kitchen but it’s been done by many others before me. I had no idea how special it could be. To be honest, this liver lover had low expectations of mushrooms being a decent substitute for the real thing but then I remembered the time I discovered shiitake bacon so I gave it a shot. I kept my recipe simple, using sage instead of the more traditional thyme since I have it growing in my garden. To bump up the flavor I added dried porcini mushrooms and some of the soaking liquid and cooked them with the fresh cremini mushrooms on low heat. Instead of cheese, I used nutritional yeast. I wanted to mimic the look of traditional pâté with a layer of fat on top so I topped one of my containers with butter–just skip this step to keep it vegan. For something that took just a half hour to cook I was surprised by how well this turned out. What’s more, I can see playing with this basic recipe and dressing it up with truffle oil or wine or some seasonal fruit next time. It’s definitely not just for banh mi–just like the Corsicans, this mushroom pâté has an identity all its own and I’m smitten once again. Update 2/22/19: My recipe for Vegetarian Banh Mi Recipe is here.