Biltong Pate

My dad was first to discover this amazing recipe from Kerneels Breytenbach's Die Lekkerste Lekker.  As I mentioned before this is one of my favourite recipe books.  You might be a purist and prefer to eat biltong as is, but, please try this recipe, you'll be surprised. It does not make the best photo, I know, but it is really delicious!

Finely chop:

4 rashers streaky bacon

1 small onion

1 punnet mushrooms

Fry the bacon, remove and then saute the onion and mushrooms until soft and slightly browned.  Add to the bacon and cool.

Now add all of the following:

200ml good quality mayonnaise

250g creamed cottage cheese

200g biltong (see note below)

Fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped

Season with:

2 cloves

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

black pepper

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Grind all the spices together in a coffee grinder or pestle and mortar or a normal pepper grinder.

As with the snoek pate, I like this pate with some texture, so I do not process the pate in a food processor as described in the original recipe, I  rather use a wooden spoon to blend it.  I also use a mixture of very finely sliced biltong and powdered biltong to make up the 200g.

If making it in advance, remember to remove it from the fridge and let it come to room temperature, to bring out the flavour and to make it easier to spread.