If any dish deserves a comeback, it has to be the classic chicken liver pate. Inexpensive, decadent and super easy to make but I guess offal, animal fat, and carbs (you'll need slices and slices of toasted bread to slather the pate on) have gone totally out of fashion in today's uber-healthy, molecularish, celebrity-chef world. So when M brought home the liver pate from Bistro du Sommelier after one of his business dinners, I knew I had to try my hands at making my own pate! Here's the recipe...Enjoy!
Recipe for Chicken Liver Pate (A modified Jamie Oliver 'Old-school chicken liver parfait)
Ingredients
200g butter (softened)
2 Shallots (chopped roughly)
2 cloves of garlic (chopped roughly)
400g chicken liver (worth making a trip to your wet market for the freshest liver)
4-5 sprigs of Sage (a few more for decoration)
1 small wineglass of cognac
50ml heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
Method
1. Preheat oven to 110 degree celsius. Put 1/2 (100g) of butter into an ovenproof bowl and pop it into the oven to melt slowly. This will take about 10mins. Carefully strain the yellow clarified butter (the clear yellow oil that floats to the top) and discard the white milky butter
2. Heat some olive oil in a saucepan. Slowly fry the shallots and garlic until soft, and remove to cool
3. Turn up the heat and quickly sear the chicken livers and sage. Cook the livers for 1-2 minutes so that they are slightly coloured on sides but the insides should still be pink. Take care not to overcook the livers otherwise your pate will turn out grainy. Remove from the pan
4. Deglazed the pan with your cognac, let the alcohol evaporate and simmer for a minute to reduce a little
5. Put the shallots, garlic, livers with sage, cognac, cream, salt, pepper and the remaining butter into a food process to blitz. Do not be alarmed if the mixture looks shockingly pink or raw at this stage. Also do be more generous with the salt and pepper as the seasonings get muted after being chilled
6. At this stage, I would recommend putting the pate mixture through a fine sieve to remove any gritty bits
7. Transfer to smooth pate mixture to small serving bowls. Place 2 sage leaves over the pate and spoon over the clarified butter. Leave the pate to chill over night if possible for the flavours to develop. The butter seal should keep the pate good for 2 weeks if left in the fridge.
~ Sharon
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Labels: chicken liver, french pate, pate, rustic
