For various reasons, I'm looking at vegetarian options. That's things that can be eaten by vegetarians - not options on vegetarians... Also I know someone who loves mushrooms. So what could be better than a mushroom pâté? Recently I tried this recipe from Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall's website, although I've modified the quantities a bit. The recipe is also available in the River Cottage Mushroom Book.

Right - down to business. I've adjusted the sizes because you can buy 300g of mushrooms and 300g of cream cheese conveniently in most supermarkets. Hugh's recipe uses the same quantity of each of these ingredients.

Hugh's Mushroom Pâté

300g mushrooms, chopped very finely
300g cream cheese
35g butter
4 garlic cloves, chopped very finely

On medium heat in a frying pan, melt the butter. Add the garlic for a minute or two - sautéing, not browning it. Then add the mushrooms. Keep the heat hot enough to cook but not hot enough to brown. Stir occasionally for about 10 minutes, you are looking to remove the moisture from the mushrooms. Once this is done, let it cool, transfer to a food processor and process the lot. Then add the cream cheese, process it again. Taste and add salt and pepper to your liking. Process again. Put it in a container and put it in the fridge to set.

After a couple of hours, I took it out of the fridge to try. It is certainly mushroom pâté but in my view it doesn't have enough mushroom flavour. I would be tempted to add 50-100g more mushrooms to the ingredients or use mushrooms with a stronger flavour. That said it was very nice and exceptionally simple to make. So I'm marking this one as a success.