Tri-Color "Veggie" Paté with Herbed Mayonaise
Tri-Color “Veggie” Paté with Herbed Mayonnaise
The Beat Divas — Mady Kaye
9 beets, about 1¼ pounds
1 pound carrots, trimmed, scraped & cut into rounds = about 2½ cups
Two 10 oz. pckgs. frozen chopped spinach, thawed completely
1½ pounds lean veal*
1 egg
1½ cups heavy cream
Salt & fresh ground pepper, to taste
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
Vegetable oil for greasing the pan or Pam
1. Cut off and discard stems from beets. Put beets in saucepan. Add water to cover and bring to a boil. Simmer about 35 minutes or until tender. Drain, rinse under cold water, take off skins.
2. Meanwhile, drop carrots into a saucepan of boiling water. Cook about 5 minutes. Drain. Put carrots into food processor and blend thoroughly. Spoon and scrape mixture into a bowl and set aside.
3. Squeeze spinach to extract the water. Put into bowl of food processor and blend thoroughly. Spoon and scrape into another bowl. Set aside. You should have 1½ cups.
4. Slice beets and put into food processor. Blend thoroughly. Spoon and scrape mixture into a third bowl. Set aside.
5. Put veal into food processor and blend well. Add egg and blend. Gradually add cream while blending. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
6. Divide veal mixture into three parts and add 1/3 to carrots, 1/3 to beets, 1/3 to spinach.
Mix each very thoroughly.
Preheat oven to 400°.
Using oil, lightly grease inside of a 9x5x2¾ loaf pan. The goal in filling the pan is to achieve a checkered pattern with each puree.
1. Fill the bottom of the pan with two evenly packed lengthwise layers, using ½ of the spinach mixture and ½ of the carrot mixture. Spoon the spinach mixture carefully to cover half of the bottom of the pan lengthwise, smoothing over the top. Spoon the carrot mixture next to it, smoothing over the top.
2. Top the spinach mixture with ½ of the beet mixture, smoothing over the top. Top carrot mixture with remaining spinach mixture, smoothing over the top.
3. Top beet mixture with remaining carrot mixture, smoothing over the top. Top middle spinach mixture with remaining beet mixture, smoothing over the top.
Cover loaf pan loosely with foil. Place loaf pan in a larger baking pan and fill about half way up the side of the loaf pan with boiling water.
Place pans in oven and bake 75 minutes. Remove loaf pan from water bath.. Let cool. Chill thoroughly – preferably overnight – before unmolding and slicing. Garnish with herbs. Serve with herbed mayonnaise. Bring almost to room temperature before serving.
*Ground chicken breast may be substituted for the veal, with the addition of another egg.
Herbed Mayonnaise:
1½ cups Hellman’s Light Mayonnaise
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 TBSP. white wine vinegar
1 TBSP. finely chopped parsley
1 TBSP. finely chopped fresh tarragon
2 TBSP. finely chopped cornichons (small sour gherkins)
2 TBSP. finely chopped capers, drained
1 TBSP. finely chopped shallots
1/3 cup olive oil
Salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste
Whisk all ingredients together. Chill overnight for full flavor. Bring to room temperature
before serving. Yield: about 2 cups
Cook’s Notes:
This is an eye-popping paté. It can be served in thin slices as an appetizer or
thicker slices for entrée. For the entrée, I serve it with green salad and steamed
asparagus, all on the same plate. The colors are fabulous, and the herbed mayonnaise is great on the asparagus too. I like to make a lot of the mayo, as it’s a popular item.
Dill can be used instead of tarragon. If you can find fresh (winter) savory, that’s
another herb that is great in the sauce if you don’t favor tarragon.
During cooking, the paté shrinks slightly, so make sure that the veggie purée comes right into the edges of the loaf pan and all corners are filled in. Otherwise there are gaps where the purées meet.