The Daring Cooks June, 2010 Challenge: 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 had so much fun with this month's challenge! Probably because it didn't require long hours over the hot kitchen stove. And also because the possibilities of "playing" around with flavors was endless. We were required to make only one of the pate recipes they provided and one bread recipe of our choice, I chose to make the Tri-Color Vegetable Pate. I had a bit of a problem with this one when I unmolded it, I don't know if the red pepper layer was too runny because I didn't drain the feta cheese or the white bean layer was too thick and therefore heavy, on hindsight, I should have unmolded it with the white layer under but aside from that, this was really delicious! For my next pate I made Smoked Fish or Tinapa as we call it here in the Philippines. The smoky flavor of the fish complemented the creaminess of the cream cheese. And I didn't have any problem unmolding it at all. This was the easiest to make, requiring no time over the stove at all.

For the last one, I chose to make a country pate adapted from a recipe in Epicurious. This one also had minimal stove-top time. But I had to bake it in the oven for 2 hours plus 2 hours cooling time and finally about 10 hours refrigeration before I unmolded it. I will be posting the recipe for this separately.

Tricolor Vegetable Pâté
Yields one 25 by 12,5 cm (10 by 5 inch) terrine or loaf pan
Line your pan with plastic wrap, overlapping sides.
White Bean Layer
2 x 15-ounce / 900 ml cans cannellini (white kidney beans), rinsed, drained thoroughly
1 tbsp / 15 ml fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp / 15 ml olive oil
1 tbsp / 15 ml minced fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried
2 garlic cloves, pressed

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

Red Pepper Layer
7-ounce / 210 ml jar roasted red bell peppers, drained, chopped
3/4 cup / 180 ml crumbled feta cheese (about 4 ounces)
Combine peppers and feta in processor and blend until smooth. Spread pepper mixture evenly over bean layer in prepared dish.
Pesto Layer
2 garlic cloves
1 cup / 240 ml fresh basil leaves
1 cup / 240 ml fresh Italian parsley leaves
1/4 cup / 60 ml toasted pine nuts
3 tbsp / 45 ml olive oil
1/2 cup / 120 ml low-fat ricotta cheese

Mince garlic in processor. Add basil, parsley and pine nuts and mince. With machine running, gradually add oil through feed tube and process until smooth. Mix in ricotta. Spread pesto evenly over red pepper layer. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
To unmold, invert pâté onto serving platter. Peel off plastic wrap from pâté

Tinapa Pate
1 piece Tinapa (Smoked Fish), flaked
225 grams Cream Cheese, softened
pinch Cayenne Pepper Black Pepper, freshly cracked
Spring Onion, green part, chopped into rings
Combine all ingredients in blender and puree until smooth. Line ramekin with plastic wrap and carefully pour in the mixture. Wrap plastic over the ramekin and refrigerate overnight. Remove plastic and invert ramekin on a plate. Unmold and unwrap plastic. Garnish with spring onions.

Thank you Evelyne and Valerie for this challenge!