Mushroom paté with asparagus and new potatoes

It's been two weeks since I last blogged on here – we haven't stopped eating, I've just been stupidly busy. Anyway I've managed to take a snap of tonight's dinner, which centres around a mushroom paté I've just come up with. Bit of a hit this. The paté has a bit of depth to it, and is quite yummy. Would work well with some diddy toasts, bits of pitta, etc. etc.

Ingredients:

250g chestnut mushrooms
One bulb wet garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
70g breadcrumbs
100g mixed nuts
1/2 tsp sea salt
Tbsp fresh parsley
Tbsp fresh basil
1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Juice of half a lemon

And...

One bunch asparagus

A dozen small new potatoes

Juice of the other half of the lemon
More olive oil
Sea salt

Method:

Chop the wet garlic, and start to fry in the olive oil in a large pan or wok. After a couple minutes, before the garlic starts to brown, add the mushrooms. Fry for a further ten minutes or so. At the same time, chop the breadcrumbs and nuts in a blender until they're relatively fine. Back to the pan. Add the sea salt and herbs, stir through, and then add the blended breadcrumbs and nuts. Stir through, and then add the balsamic vinegar. After the mixture has cooked through for another ten minutes, return the entire mix back to the blender, add the lemon juice and blend well until nice and smooth.

Serve with the asparagus, steamed, and the new potatoes, boiled, with some lemon zest, juice, olive oil and sea salt.