Daring Cooks' Challenge June 2010: Pâté & Homemade Bread

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

When I read that our challenge this month was pâté and homemade bread I have to admit I was a little scared; I'm not fond of liver (which pate is usually made of) or strangely textured foods and other than brownies and cookies I'm a terrible baker! But I promised myself that I would try new things in the kitchen and that is the reason I joined The Daring Kitchen. So, I went ahead and took the challenge with a few additions and modification of my own (which I'm hoping is okay) and was actually impressed at how much I enjoyed the pâté and bread and even more impressed that my guest enjoyed it too!

I made a spicy shrimp pâté, which I refrigerated instead of baking and severed on Belgian endive and homemade No Knead Artisan Bread.

Spicy Shrimp Pâté

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound cooked peeled shrimp 
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
• 2 teaspoons dry vermouth or chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground mace
• 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon chili oil
• 1/2 teaspoon red  pepper flakes
• 2 large heads Belgian endive
• 1 small can of tiny shrimp (optional topping)
• 1 sprig of thyme for garnish

Preparation:

Combine cooked shrimp, butter, vermouth, lemon juice, mustard, salt, mace, red pepper, black pepper, chili oil and red pepper flakes in blender or food processor. Process until smooth. Gently form mixture into a plastic wrap coated mold of your choice. (If mixture is too soft to handle refrigerate 1 hour.) Cover and refrigerate 3 to 5 hours. Separate endive into individual leaves. Place pâté on serving plate; serve with endive leaves or bread.

Yield: Makes 12 (2-tablespoon) servings