Le Croc at Home | Mushroom Pate Recipe
Chef Aidan O’Neal tailors Le Crocodile’s mushroom pâté recipe for any home kitchen; he tells us that this recipe is a gram for gram recreation of the chicken liver pâté recipe from the Chez Ma Tante archives. Chicken livers are simply subbed out for mushrooms creating this vegetarian adaptation of the French classic.
Three pâté-making tips from Le Crocodile’s CDC, Chef Borja Del Cerro:
- Brown the mushrooms more than you might think… Never fear a deep sear! Browning makes for more flavor.
- Chef Borja tells us to season with salt at every step.
- Porcini powder can be made by blitzing dried porcini mushrooms in a spice grinder or a blender.
Ingredients:
2 large onions, caramelized to yield 155g (see step 1)
1 ½ lbs / 600g mix of cremini and shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and halved
8 tablespoons oil
4 stalks / 105g celery, thinly sliced
5 cloves / 20g garlic, thinly sliced
¼ cup / 60g Pineau des Charentes
1 tablespoon / 25g Dijon mustard
1 cup / 225g heavy cream
1 ½ cups (three sticks) / 325g unsalted butter, cubed
1 tablespoon / 20g truffle condiment or summer truffles in oil
3g agar-agar
Salt, to taste
Method:
1. Thinly slice two large onions. Into a pan over medium heat, add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cover the pan, and cook, about an hour, stirring frequently until the onions are deeply brown.
2. Place a medium-sized pot over medium-high heat. Add four tablespoons of oil to coat the bottom of the pot. Once the oil is hot, add the mushrooms, and sear them until deeply browned on all sides. Remove them from the pot and set aside.
3. Using the same pot, add another two tablespoons of oil. Place over medium heat, once the oil is hot, add the celery, garlic, and a pinch of salt. Keep stirring here, so that the celery and garlic don’t develop too much color.
4. Once the celery looks translucent in color, add the caramelized onion, and stir together.
5. Deglaze any developed fond with a splash of Pineau (you will use the rest later). Stir, scraping any bits off of the bottom of the pot, letting the alcohol evaporate.
6. From here, caramelization will happen quickly because of the addition of the Dijon, so move swiftly, making sure to constantly stir your aromatics. Add in the Dijon, mixing to incorporate it, and then deglaze with the remaining Pineau. Cook until the Pineau is nearly fully reduced.
7. Add the cream and the truffle condiment, and let the mixture reduce by half.
8. Add the mushrooms back into the pot, making sure to incorporate them fully into the cream mix.
9. Mix the agar-agar into the mushrooms and cream and let the mixture heat up to activate the thickener.
10. Spoon the mushrooms into a blender. With the blender running, add the butter a few cubes at a time. Once the butter is blended into the mushroom mix, add a few more butter cubes. Repeat this process until all of the butter is used up and the mushroom pâté is very smooth.
11. Pass the pâté through a chinois or a fine mesh strainer, stirring, as needed, with a ladle to push the mushroom pâté through.
12. Oil your terrine mold (or loaf pan). Line the oiled mold with a large piece of plastic wrap, letting a good amount of excess plastic wrap hang over the sides of the mold. Oil the lined mold again.
13. Pour the pâté mix into the mold, and smooth the top over with a spatula. Bang the mold a few times on a hard surface to pop any air bubbles that might be trapped in the pâté. Fold the excess plastic wrap over the pâté to fully cover it.
14. Place the wrapped pâté in the fridge, and let it rest overnight. Once the pâté has solidified, slice and serve.
To serve à Le Crocodile, top the pâté slice with a few pieces of truffle carpaccio, shingle it with thinly sliced white button mushrooms, dust with porcini powder, drizzle with a spoonful of the truffle oil from the carpaccio, and finish with a sprinkle of Maldon salt.
Chef Aidan O’Neal indulges us in a few questions:
Three words to describe this mushroom pâté?
Deceptive …. Rich … Earthy.
On the note of deceptiveness, this dish has been described as having a “remarkably convincing I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-liver texture.” Is there a secret to your mushroom pâté?
It’s more like, I-can’t-believe-it’s-just-butter. Butter. It’s a gram to gram recipe of a chicken liver pâté, which is our old recipe from Chez Ma Tante, and it’s the same as our chicken liver pâté recipe here, we just subbed out chicken livers for mushrooms. So it’s treated and prepared the same way.
Why cremini/shiitake combo? What does each offer?
In all honesty, they’re just really good mushrooms that taste delicious when you roast them in butter … their flavors aren’t that different fundamentally once the pâté is finished, but it’s nice to use a variety of shapes.
Ideal drink pairing with mushroom pâté?
A beer. I think beer goes really well with food. More people should drink more beer with food and not be embarrassed about it. A Guinness would be good. Guinness or a Kronenbourg.