Pate - Recipes Please

[Burgmeister]

The GF and I have volunteered to do the starter at the in-laws tomorrow afternoon and we'll be feeding 10.

I was thinking a nice homemade pate with crusty toast would fit the bill perfectly as it can be made in advance and is reasonably inexpensive.

So does anyone have any tips as so far I think i'm going to go with chicken liver..?

My recipe looks like this;

Chicken Liver
Butter
Shallot/ Onion
Garlic
Dash of Madeira (or something else?)
Salt and Pepper
Any spices to liven things up??

[dazco]

Thyme needs to go into it, and a lot more alcohol than you have written down here.

A big glug of port, sherry and brandy and if possible leave it all to soak into the oonions then reduce down to next to nothing.

Don't forget to soak the livers in milk for at least a few hours and to clean them.

Use loads of butter

[Burgmeister]

Ta for the above.

Just deciding where to source the livers from now. Options are supermarket (close by) or butcher (less close by). Butcher is winning mainly due to perceived higher standard of quality.

[Barbon Star]

As has been said you need way more booze in there than you've suggested! Brandy is a must and make sure that you chuck around half a dozen juniper berries & 3 or 4 bay leaves. Just be sure to fish them out before blitzing the livers!

[Burgmeister]

Ok, ingredients sourced and will commence cooking shortly. Pics to follow...

[dazco]

Burgmeister said:

Ok, ingredients sourced and will commence cooking shortly. Pics to follow...

Good luck.

Forgot to say do NOT overcook the livers or it will end up grainy. And pass it through a fine sieve if you have one,

[Burgmeister]

Ok, so pate is pretty much made. Totally forgot to pass it through a sieve but it did get a good blitzing. If anyone say anything i'll just say that its supposed to be coarse!

Got the livers from the butcher in the end as they were free range and only £3 for 500g. Soaked them in milk (not actually sure this is necessary) overnight and got to work this morning.

The Livers;



The Livers (Trimmed)



Pause for a snack



The Ingredients



Cooking



Just before the blitz



Forgot to take a photo of the mixture going in but this is the slop that came out



Decanted into a 'pretty' jar (which annoyed me as I had to remove my pickling chillies into a jam jar)



And the finished product



The proof will be in the tasting later. What the photos don't show is the full extend of the ingredients;

Free range livers
Butter
Thyme
Garlic
Shallot
Salt
Pepper
Bay Leaf
Port
Whisky

[dazco]

Looks nice enough, hope the whisky works for you.

Have you anything to serve with it? Onion compote? Onion marmalade? Chutney?

[escargot]

Looks great. What are the other 9 people having though?

[Burgmeister]

escargot said:

Looks great. What are the other 9 people having though?

Deceptively large, at least thats what I regularly tell the OH.

[escargot]