{daring cooks: pâtés and bread}

Our hostesses this month, Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie of a The Chocolate Bunny, chose delicious pate with freshly baked bread as their June Daring Cook’s challenge! They’ve provided us with 4 different pate recipes to choose from and are allowing us to go wild with our homemade bread choice.

I've been having so much fun with all of the Daring Bakers challenges that this month I signed up for Daring Cooks. John was particularly happy about this as he prefers the savory over the sweet. hehe Daring Bakers has been my excuse to actually have sweet things around so I figured he deserved a little something too.

Our challenge for this month looked very interesting and was something I've never experienced before. A pâté is basically a meat or veggie based paste that can then be spread onto bread or served with crackers. The meat versions are usually made with liver or gizzards which was just not something that I could stomach making so, I opted for the veggie version. My goal was to create a tricolor vegetable pâté using as many local ingredients as possible.

On a visit to our farmers market this morning we discovered so many more vegetables available! Yellow squash, zucchini, brocoli and garlic were just a few items we were able to pick up. So very happy about the variety being harvested right now! With all of my fresh ingredients in hand I went to figuring out the recipe I'd be able to make for the challenge.

Beans are not something that I can find at my farmers market and peppers are not quite in season so I knew those two layers had to be adapted. Most seasonal ingredients tend to taste good together so I chose to go with a zucchini top layer, carrot and goat cheese middle layer and the basil pesto as my bottom layer. Individually it all tasted pretty good and as as a medley, it was delicious. Since its only John and I, I did a half recipe for the top two layers but a full recipe of the pesto...you can never have too much pesto.

For the bread I used a recipe from my Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day cookbook. The honey whole wheat baguette turned out super delicious and was great with the vegetable pâté. It would also taste great served on crackers or with raw veggies. The taste of the pate was so very refreshing...I think I could eat it simply spread on a sandwich slice as my lunch.

I really enjoyed this challenge and it was relatively simple to adapt and create a completely local and seasonal pâté. It was pretty quick and easy to put together which is great since for the next month, my life will be consumed with watching all of the world cup soccer games! GO USA!! Definitely give the recipe a try, it works great as a snack while watching the matches. For the meat based pâtés, original tricolor veggie pâté and baguette recipes, check them out at the Daring Kitchen.

Recipe and pics after the jump

{tricolor vegetable pâté}

Yields one 10 by 5 inch loaf pan (1/2 recipe yields two ramekins)
Fresh produce from the farmers market.

zucchini layer

ingredients

2 large zucchini
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp minced fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried
2 garlic cloves, pressed

directions

Peel, slice and saute zucchini in a little bit of olive oil for about 10 - 15 minutes until soft. Alternatively, you could slice in half and bake in the oven at 400º until soft. Let them cool.

Add lemon juice, olive oil, oregano and garlic and blend in food processor until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread bean mixture evenly on bottom of prepared pan.

carrot layer

ingredients

2 bunches (16 medium to small sized) of carrots
3/4 cup (about 4 ounces) crumbled goat cheese (could use feta or your favorite soft cheese)

directions

Slice carrots into small pieces and saute until they become soft. Let cool.

Combine carrots and goat cheese in processor and blend until smooth.

pesto layer

ingredients

2 garlic cloves
1 cup  fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (I did not have these and it tastes just fine without them)
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup goat cheese

directions

Mince garlic in processor. Add basil and continue mincing. Gradually add oil and process until smooth. Mix in the cheese.

to assemble

Line dish or ramekins with plastic wrap so it overlaps the sides. Spread zucchini layer evenly in the bottom then spread the carrot and cheese layer on top of that. Finally, spread your basil pesto on the very top and smooth evenly. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or at least 8 hours before serving.

To unmold, invert pâté onto serving platter. Peel off plastic wrap from pâté. Garnish with herb sprigs and serve with bread slices.
Honey whole wheat baguette...mmmmmm.