Olive Pâté

When I think of the parties my mom used to host (a fairly common event for a Naval wife) and the deliciously scrumptious spread all prepared without the fancy ingredients and the equipment we are so addicted to now, my fondest taste (read gobbling) memory is of little golden fried bread squares topped with grated cheese and a little dot of ketchup ( my job was always to dot the squares)...who knew then about the existence of calories and fat content and that one square meant maybe ten minutes on a treadmill..sigh!!
To do justice to that classic, this post is a much healthier version which I have adapted from a recipe in my Holy Book of recipes ( more about that in a later post)
So pâté means paste and traditionally a meat paste, but this is a vegetarian version. If you love cheese and bread like I do, read on....

Ingredients

1/2 cup pitted olives (green or black)
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
3/4 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated cheese (any cooking cheese or soft cheese)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 garlic pod

To Serve
Bread slices (white or brown), preferably thick bread slices
Olive Oil


1.Roughly blend all the pâté ingredients in a food processor or a mixture, the paste should not be smooth.
2.Store the pâté in a jar and chill for several hours before using - this allows the flavour to develop
3.Cut the bread slices into any desired shape and shallow fry the pieces in olive oil until they are light golden brown colour. Drain thoroughly on paper towels. For a lower calorie version, you can toast the bread pieces in an oven.
4.Top each piece with a little of the pâté and serve immediately.  You can even store the pâté to be used later.

I used a heart shaped cutter :) so this is what the outcome was....

Planning the next post along some 'sweet' strains....
Oh and did you know that sparrows can swim to escape predators :)))