Roasted sweet potato paté

A couple of months ago I had the good fortune to dine at Vedge in Philadelphia. Everything was excellent, but one dish stood out to my taste buds, and I was transfixed by the flavor. It was a sweet potato paté, and as I ate it, my brain was on overdrive trying to distill the ingredients so I could make it at home. When the waitress came by to ask how we were enjoying everything, I told her I loved the paté and asked her what was in it.  I asked nicely, mind you. "Chickpeas," she said with a sweet smile. Well, duh. Thanks, I guess.

I've made the paté several times in the last two months, and I think I've finally got a version I love. I don't know how it compares to the original, but I don't really care anymore because this one is so good, and I mean good, that it works for me. It's not hard to make but does require some attention to detail, but if you try it, I think you'll be pleased. OK, I'm being modest — this paté is fabulous and you should make it.

Roasted sweet potato paté

• 1 medium sweet potato, washed and ends removed (1+ cups packed)
• 1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half from end to end)
• 4 large cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 1 cup cooked chickpeas, canned or home-cooked, drained)
• 1 cup raw, unsalted sunflower seeds
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)
• 1/4 teaspoon truffle salt
• fresh ground black pepper (generous)
• olive oil for roasting

1. Preheat the oven to 425˚F
2. Line a baking pan with parchment paper. Place the potato, onion, garlic and chickpeas on the pan. Drizzle the onion, garlic and chickpeas with a little oil.
3. Put the pan in the oven and set the timer for 10 minutes. When the time is up, remove the garlic (it should be softened) and reset the timer for 20 minutes. Keep an eye on the onion. You want it to soften and caramelize a little but not burn. At the end of the 20 minutes it should be done. 
4. Remove the onion and check the chickpeas. If they are starting to dry and color a little, they are done. You want them roasted but not too hard. Carefully remove the chickpeas with a large spatula.
5. Continue cooking the sweet potato until it is soft, about 10 more minutes. If the potato is still hard, you can cut it lengthwise and place it cut-side down, to roast a little longer, until it is soft.
6. Toast the sunflower seeds. You can do it in a pan on the stove, stirring constantly until they begin to smell toasty, or you can turn the oven down to 350˚ when the potato is done, put the seeds into a baking dish, and bake for about five minutes until they are toasted. Watch them and don't let them burn.
7. Now that everything is roasted and toasted, it's time for the food processor. Add the sunflower seeds and process until finely ground but not ground into butter. Add the chickpeas, parsley and salts, and grind. Add the sweet potato, onion, peeled garlic, vinegar, liquid smoke and black pepper, and purée until smooth. You may need to scrape down the processor bowl a few times. 
8. The paté will be quite stiff. You can pack it into a decorative container and refrigerate it until serving time, or serve it warm, as is. Serve with crackers, or on small sourdough toast rounds. Or serve with raw carrot and celery sticks.

So really, this is not such a big deal to make — you're basically putting everything into the oven to roast, then puréeing it all in a food processor. If you use parchment paper or a silpat, there's not even much to clean up. If I'm having a bunch of people over for dinner, and don't want to feel stressed out with a ton of cooking, I make a couple of things the day or night before, and this is one of those things that is great made the day before.

Truffle salt may not be in your pantry. I was gifted a small two-ounce jar, and when it's gone I'll definitely be replacing it. It's a little expensive but you use a very small amount so it lasts quite a while. Mine is called Truffle Queen 10% concentration, it's from Italy and distributed by La Buena Tavola Truffle Café in Seattle. It's very potent and makes the paté more amazing, but if you don't have any, just skip it. But, seriously, a little touch of truffle salt will make you happy. I swear. (I have another kind of truffle salt that tastes just like regular salt. You have to get a good one that smells and tastes like truffles!) Get yourself some truffle salt and use it sparingly so it lasts a long time.

I'm also trying to think of a flavor other than truffle salt I could add to the paté that will be as dramatic in flavor but not in cost. Next time I make the paté, I'll give it a shot.

This post has been entered in Wellness Weekend.

Fine dining at Vedge in Philadelphia

autumn squash pierogies, chanterelles, madeira, hazelnut picada

During the winter holidays we spent a week in Philly visiting relatives and friends. One of the highlights was a dinner we shared with my brother at Vedge.

spicy grilled tofu, gochujang, edamame, smoked miso, yuba cracklin

I'd read that Vedge was more than just a great vegan restaurant — it was a fabulous restaurant, regardless of its unique cuisine. I'd have to agree, the food at Vedge was pretty remarkable. It was all glorious, fresh, real plant-based food.

braciole: smoked eggplant & cauliflower, Italian salsa verde, cured olive

Vedge is a small-plate restaurant, and our server recommended we order three dishes each. You can take a look look at the menus to see the selection of plates they offer. We chose items from the small plate menu and the dirt list. The three of us shared all the plates so we each got to sample nine dishes. If I go again, I think I may get my own three plates. Having just a bite of many dishes is exciting, but a little frustrating.

portabella carpaccio, creamy horseradish, pickled cabbage, cornichons

The plates really are quite small, and we each got a couple of bites from each plate. It was a little challenging for me to recognize and match each dish to the menu description after I got home, but I did my best to label our choices.

brussels sprouts, shaved & grilled, smoked mustard

There were a couple of plates I couldn't absolutely identify, and it may be because the menu changes, and by the time I returned home some of the offerings may have rotated. The "dirt list" changes daily, I believe. (update: a reader has helped to identify the previously unnamed plate!) Everything I tasted was beautiful and remarkable. The restaurant was ultra elegant, and very dark, and though I had my fast lens with me, it was no match for the "atmosphere," so I had to resort to the flash because it was flash or nada. You are only getting a bad representation of what the food really looked like. Honestly, I was so excited by the food, if it weren't for my two dining companions reminding me to take photographs, I would have nothing to show you.

roasted baby scarlet turnips coconut creamed kale, basil leaf & seed

When my husband and I go out to dinner for a non-special occasion, we usually tend to be conservative about the "extras" we order — things like drinks and appetizers are the stuff that pads the bill and makes dining out so expensive. But this was a special event, and we didn't hold back.

salt roasted gold beets, avocado, smoked tofu, rye, capers, creamy cucumber

We all ordered drinks — my brother had a craft beer, my husband had wine and I had a cocktail. I almost never drink, but we were at VEDGE, after all, and it was my brother's birthday, and I had to, you know, try everything. For the blog. I had a Kyoto Sour: Momokawa junmai sake, grapefruit, cucumber, agave, lemon. It was just delicious.

roasted maitake mushroom, celery root fritter, smoked leek remoulade

Everything was remarkably excellent, but one of my favorite tastes was a sweet potato paté that was unbelievable. I tried to re-create it when we got home and I made something very delicious, though with a slightly less-firm texture. It occurred to me that maybe I should bake it, and as soon as I'm happy with my recipe, I'll post it. The celery root fritter was also spectacular. As were the brussels sprouts.

wood grilled sweet potato paté, grain mustard, jerk cashews, toast

sticky toffee pudding, pumpkin ice cream

I was really quite full after all the small plates, though my brother wasn't. Since he was ordering dessert, I ordered one, too, to share with my husband. (OK, I would have ordered dessert even if my brother hadn't, just so I could taste it.) My brother ordered the ice cream trio, and I got the toffee pudding with pumpkin ice cream. My brother kept exclaiming about his whiskey ice cream, and how remarkable it was, but I was too enamored with my ultra creamy and perfectly spiced pumpkin ice cream to pay much attention. The pudding was great for a few bites but then became too sweet for me. My husband, on the other hand, had no problem polishing it off.

It's not easy to get reservations so if you know you'll be in Philly and want to go, call ahead — way ahead. We were lucky to get a reservation for three at 8:30 p.m. on a  Thursday night, and it was basically the only reservation to be had for the whole of our visit. (Of course, it was a busy time of year, so this might not be the case at other times.)

The Vedge is not to be missed, though you might want to save it for a special occasion, as it is pricy. For me, just going there is special occasion enough. I can't wait to go back!

Oh no. I forgot the arms!

We were on the East Coast for a week, enjoying visits with friends and family in Philly. (My last post was written before we left home and was published automatically.) We don't visit our hometown often enough, visits always seem too short, and it's hard to leave loved ones behind when we return to the PNW. We got back Monday night and are settling back into the rain and gloom routine.

The food highlight of our trip was dinner at Vedge, which I'll post about soon — still have to organize the photos and figure out what dishes they are. But today my post is about our family dinner on Dec. 25. We don't celebrate Christmas, so it wasn't a super festive holiday meal so to speak, but I thought it was pretty tasty. The appetizer, shown above, was my take on one of the spectacular dishes from Vedge, sweet potato paté, which I tried to re-create. I'll post a recipe when I write about our Vedge dining experience.

River, from Wing it Vegan, and I, sometimes have a synchronicity thing going on where we comment on each others posts at the exact same time, so I was only mildly surprised to see that we both planned almost the same dinner. Of course, her version was much more creative and clever than mine, but still.

I made beet loaf shepherd's pie and she made beet burgers in muffin tins topped with snowmen — same idea, with a little more creativity on her part. But, she inspired me to make Miss E's dinner a little bit cuter than the rest of ours — I baked her loaf in a mini tart pan and formed her mashed potatoes into a snowperson of sorts, thinking maybe she would actually be motivated to eat it. (You should check River's post to see what the snowmen should really look like!)

Miss E was quite elated with her dinner, though she didn't eat the burger part, only the potatoes. I used olive tips for eyes, a carrot for the nose, a pickle piece for the scarf and sun-dried tomatoes for the mouth and buttons. But, I forgot the arms, which River had made from parsley.

Just for the record, beets aren't the primary ingredient of the loaf, but lend a red color and delicious flavor; it's mostly beans and millet. I served it with cashew gravy made from a handful of cashews blended to creamy smoothness with the leftover bean-cooking liquid, plus sun-dried tomatoes, and assorted other ingredients. It was simmered with sautéed sliced mushrooms, and I thought it was delicious. (Because I forgot to take photos at the dinner, the shepherd's pie pics with the excepti9on of the snowman, are actually leftovers from the next day.)

For dessert I made the  oat/almond cookies that I've grown very fond of, left the chocolate chips out, pressed them as thin as possible and made them into sandwich cookies. Before flattening them, I rolled the chilled dough into same-size balls and chilled them in the fridge for 10 minutes to make them easier to flatten. I flattened the balls with my fingers.

I added the chocolate the lazy way. When the cookies were done, I removed the pan from the oven, and quickly paired the cookies for size. (I had tried to make them all the same so this was pretty easy.) Then I turned one of each pair over and covered the flat bottom of the over-turned cookie with chocolate chips. When all the cookie bottoms were covered, I carefully placed the cookie sheet back into the oven for a minute. When the minute was up, I removed the cookie sheet, covered each cookie with its mate, pressed them together with a little twist, and voila! Sandwich cookies. (The chips don't look melted when they come out of the oven, but they are.) After the cookies cool, the chocolate hardens.

Here is Miss E modeling the tutu her Philadelphia cousin Rebecca made for her and sent back with us. Miss E loves tutus. Becca also made her various hair ornaments. (Becca sells the tutus and bows, so if anyone is interested, just let me know!)

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!