Mushroom terrine

In a party I just love serving starter/appetizer...the guests work up their excitement every time the door bell rings ... one more champagn pop-opened; tens fingers digging in tidbits, pairs of feet up on the coffee table . Now I can't wait to see my sister-in-laws and their children at the Christmas dinner party this year! Since some ladies there watch their weight carefully, this vegetable-base terrine is particularly designed for them; it is choke-full-of-flavor while won't choke up our waistline. But, moderation is always the key.

To make the terrine look more festive and special, I mold the pate, decorate it with vegetable and herb, add a shining agar jelly on top. Agar (photo on left) is extracted from seaweed so makes it vegetarian gelatin substitute. The word agar comes from the Malay word agar-agar, meaning jelly. It is typically sold as packaged strips of washed and dried seaweed, or in powdered form. After dissolved in hot water and cooled, agar becomes gelatinous, just like gelatin except the latter is made from animal protein. Agar's widely used in making jello and desserts in Asia, and quite often in savory dish, so that is what I'm doing now. Any mushroom after cooked able to yield buttery texture would be good for this dish, like porcini, crimini , baby bella and white button mushroom, except the last one has not much flavor, still you can improve it by blending with other mushroom(s).

Recipe of Mushroom terrine (yield one 8"x4" terrine or 6 tart-size servings)

Ingredients for the mushroom pate: 2 Tbps butter, 1 clove of garlic finely minced, 1/4 medium onion finely diced, 10 oz baby bella mushroom sliced, 2 hard-boiled eggs, 1/2 cup ground almond, 1 sage leaf minced, white wine, Worcestershire sauce, bread crumb (optional... but more you add the pate's flavor less intense), salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Set the heat on medium to medium/high for a skillet, saute the onion and butter for 2 - 3 minutes, add garlic and fry for another minute.
2. Add mushroom and a couple dashes of white wine, saute the mushroom over medium-low heat until it's soft. Add sage, season with Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Turn the heat off.
3. After the mushroom cooled off, drain or even squeeze out the liquid as much as you can. Save the liquid for making agar jelly.
4. Puree the mushroom and the eggs. Taste and re-season if necessary. Combine the mushroom mixture with almond. It should have a good consistency like pate (add bread crumb if necessary), and can be simply served as it is at this stage.
5. If you intend to dress up the terrine, fill the pate in a 8"x4" container. Or if you have time and want to make it very elaborated as the photo shown you, divide the pate into small portions according to the size of your tin, wrapped, keep them chill in refrigerator while you're proceeding agar jelly next.

Ingredients for savory agar jelly: juicy from mushroom, about 2 cups vegetable stock, dried agar.

In a pot, mix the mushroom juice and vegetable stock, taste, add a bit of agar (follow the packages direction), slowly bring the liquid to boil, stir occasionally. But you should just make one cup of agar jelly at a time as the following involves mutiple steps. To assemble the decorative terrine:

1. Before you start boiling agar, set out the vegetable, herbs, and the tins. Now you can make the agar.
2. Pour a tin layer of agar into tart tins, arrange the vegetable and herb, the previous layer of agar would be slightly set in 2 minutes, now add a little more agar to cover the decorations. Let it set (take about 10 minutes in a cool kitchen).
3. Make another batch of agar again... in the meantime, fill the tins with mushroom pate, pour in agar and fill up to the top. Chill the terrine in refrigerator for half day.
4. To unmold: in a shallow tray fill with warm-hot water, dip the tins in for a short while, unmold. If sliced mushroom is used for decoration, some dark liquid starts coming out after 2 days.