Chicken Liver Pate
Finally I made Chicken Liver Pate tonight. Last night, while browsing through some old magazines, I saw a pretty good recipe with a nice pic from Marie Claire magazine and was quite inspired by this. This morning, I looked up more recipes from the net and found out that the methods & ingredients are pretty similar, with some recipes adding sage, or all spice, some even had ketchup and lemon juice.
I rarely follow recipes to the letter but prefer to add/reduce or leave out ingredients to my liking - this therefore is my version of Chicken Liver Pate (first attempt).
Ingredients
1. Butter & Olive Oil
2. Finely chop one onion and four cloves of garlic
3. 250 gm chicken livers ( I bought 300 gms from Supa Save @ 65cents ), after throwing away the attached hearts, I think the weight reduced to 250 gm, but who's counting?
4. Dried Thyme, Marjoram & Parsley
5. Dried Mustard Powder (Colmans)
6. Salt & Black Pepper
7. Brandy (optional, can replace with stock)
8. Cream
Method
1. Wash the livers well - cut into smaller pieces and remove membranes and other unwanted bits. Rinse well and drain. Pat dry.
2. Put a non-stick pan on high heat, add butter and olive oil.
3. Add onions and garlic and fry till lightly browned. Add livers.
4. Stir and add the dried herbs, mustard powder and s & p.
5. Add brandy and stir till well mixed. (For a halal version, just replace brandy with chicken stock).
6. Reduce liquid to concentrate flavours.
7. Add cream and turn down heat.
Stir to combine ingredients.
Further reduction.
8. Simmer gently and adjust seasoning. I tasted it at this point - hmmm - it was g.o.o.d. Strong, bold, gutsy, in-your-face flavours. I think at this point I can happily eat this as it is, on top of crusty bread.... But a pate it is and a pate it should be, so proceed to step 9.
9. Cool slightly and tip the whole thing into a food processor.
10. Puree till smooth but don't over do it. It's ok to have a few small chunks here and there. The chunks add to its rustic charm - hehe.
11. Put into little containers.
12. Melt some butter and allow to cool slightly so that sediment sinks to bottom.
13. Carefully spoon melted butter onto pates to seal, covering the tops completely. Here you can add a bay leaf or perhaps a sprig of cilantro or parsley to garnish.
14. I dusted some dried rosemary and coarsely ground black pepper on top, to add more flavours.
15. Put into little plastic bags and seal with a rubber band to preserve flavours and place it in the refrigerator till required.
Tomorrow I will give a pot each to S & Wm to taste and comment. Hope you'll like them, girls.
