Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Vegetable Pâté with Salted Butter served with Daikon Slices and Edible Flowers








In my mind Pâté is something made with leftovers: mince finely and add fat, and voilà le Pâté! But leftovers in this household are very scarce indeed, so for this month MT Challenge I needed to create some!


Obviously my pâté has a vegetable base, Kazuyo gave me some runner beans, and I had some green beans myself, so I cooked them with carrot, onion and celery, and water and salt. That was going to be blended into a creamy soup, but I could use some veggies first. Then in a saucepan I cooked a couple of zucchini with a green and a red capsicum, garlic, salt and olive oil. This ended up on top of a place of potato gnocchi (after keeping a couple of spoons for the pâté). Ok, so these weren't exactly leftovers, I worked in reverse, the main meals were the leftovers from my pâté! 






How much to use? Well, a bit of all of the vegetables (without the stock) to fill a 500ml jag, to start with. Then I blended the veggies. 









And now just look at this butter! Nice, fat, yellow NZ salted butter! Perfect for a pâté. I melted 100g of it and added half of my veggie mixture (250g, the rest went into the soup).


At this point the pâté needs to be whipped, and then stored in the fridge. I looked for a rectangular container, but didn't have any free one so I put it in two jars. Also I wasn't sure how solid it was going to be!


Yes this Pâté tastes good, but ever so fat! If I had bread I could eat an entire baguette with it, but to fill less guilty instead of bread I used crispy slices of Daikon. Just peel and cut the daikon into circles and place into a bowl filled with cold water. Before serving the Pâté drain the daikon, it will be nice and crunchy, ready to use instead of bread or crackers, and healthier too. The Pâté should be taken out of the fridge about 15 minutes before serving (it gets quite firm), spread on the daikon slices and decorate with edible petals and flowers. 





Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©




With this recipe I take part in the MTChallenge di febbraio 2012





35 comments:

  1. Vegetable pate' is something new to me... I have to try it, because it looks delicious!

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  2. I love vegetable pate'. I wander if there is another combination to add for thickening it instead of butter, or less butter for that matter.

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    1. Yes starchy food, like potatoes or chickpeas, but a Pâté has to be fat or it is not a Pâté :-)

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  3. Oh yum. I've never had vegetable pate before. Although I'm imagining my expanding waistline as I write. Problem with me is if it's super yum I can't stop at one.

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    1. I know, I am usually so careful with butter... but as long as you share it... :-)

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  4. E' sempre un piacere passare da te, Alessandra.

    Oltre alle preparazioni deliziose, come questo patè vegetale che proverei davvero, ad avere il daikon, ci sono sempre le tue foto fantastiche, che trasportano in un mondo lontano !

    ciao loredana

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    1. Ciao Loredana, grazie per le tue belle parole, fanno veramente piacere :-)

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  5. Molto poetico, con quei fiori, oltre che certamente buonissimo!

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  6. I've never had this pate before, but the way you madeit looks so delicious!

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  7. foto che mi invogliano ancor di più a volere la primavera, a volte le cose che sembrano scontate son quelle che sfuggono di più.......chi ha mai pensato ad un patè vegetariano? vedo che sai fare di necessità virtù, mai perdersi d'animo ti servivano delle fette da spalmare e le hai trovate.......veggy pure loro ^______^

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    1. E' vero, infatti la parola pâté mi fa sempre pensare alla carne, ma mi sembra di aver visto diversi pâté vegetariani nel challenge :-)

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  8. Cara Alessandra, ottimo il tuo paté vegetale, e bellissima l’idea di servirlo sul daikon, che dà una nota croccante, e insieme ai fiori rende il tutto molto romantico.
    Grazie mille, un abbraccio,
    Bucci

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  9. I've never had this pate before, but the way you madeit looks so delicious!

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  10. L'intera proposta nel suo insieme sembra poesia ^_^ Un bacione

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  11. Fantastico Ale!E quei fiori..sarò fissata ma sono adorabili!Io ci vedrei benissimo anche del burro di sesamo..presente che guduria??
    Sperimenterò!baci

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  12. I really want to get into edible flowers! I have never used them in anything. Suggestions?

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    Replies
    1. Vic, click on flowers in my labels and you will get tons of recipes with flowers :-)

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  13. Bella foto (mi piace il tocco dei fiori!) e bella ricetta... Grazie mille Ale!
    Dani

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  14. I couldn't believe that the comment on my blog was yours! Thank you so much!

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    1. Why not, given time I am always happy to leave comments :-).

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  15. bellissimo il tuo patè Alessandra! io li adoro, ne faccio tantissimi tipi e spesso non mi segno il procedimento o gli ingredienti, così quando me ne piace uno particolarmente non posso quasi mai rifarlo.....
    proverò con le fette di daikon (mi piace moltissimo) ^^

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    Replies
    1. Visto che di solito uso sempre avanzi, anch'io non rifaccio mai gli stessi pâté, ma a dire il vero preferisco i dip, le salsine da intingoli :-)

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  16. Sembrano le miniature di una casa di bambola!!!
    Delizioso....è un commento un po' lezioso, allora dirò SIMPLY DELICIOUS!!!!

    Mille saluti

    Fabi

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    1. Grazie Fabi, sai che vado matta per le miniature?

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  17. Un'ottima alternativa ai soliti patè, grazie !

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  18. Ciao Alessandra, oltre al patè mi piace il modo per utilizzare il Daikon che mi piace da matti e che per fortuna ora trovo anche in Italia senza dover "emigrare" in Austria.
    Buon fine settimana :-)

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  19. questo, è pura poesia...
    grazie
    ale

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  20. Daikon! Alessandra, this is so beautiful. I had never had Daikon this way, and I'm very intrigued. Such a great idea!

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  21. What a great idea...haven't made vegetable pate before but I should give it a whirl :)

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  22. Ciao! Ti scopro grazie all'MTC. Blog bellissimo e curatissimo, complimenti. Come questo spettacolare patè!

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