Chicken Liver Pâté
Adapted from A Cook's Guide by Donna Hay
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Makes approximately two cups of pâté
-
1.5 tablespoons butter
-
2 cloves garlic, diced
-
1 small onion, diced
-
350g/12 ozs chicken livers
-
1/4 cup (60ml) brandy
-
125g cold butter, extra, chopped
-
1/4 cup (60ml) cream
-
salt and black pepper
-
80g (3 ozs) butter
-
Bread and cornichons to serve
Buyer's tip: buy chicken livers as fresh as possible. They should be glossy and moist and avoid using the dark patches (you can trim them off). Buy these at a chicken speciality store or a good butcher.
Step 1 - Firstly trim the livers. Pull off the connective tissue and any blood lines as these will cause bitterness. You can see I made a bit of a mess of these but the whole thing gets blended up in the end.
Step 2 - Heat a saucepan on medium heat and add the butter to the pain. Sauté the onions and garlic for 2-3 minutes until softened. Add the trimmed livers and cook for 2-3 minutes. The inside of the livers should still be pink. Add the brandy and cook for 1 minute.
Step 3 - Place this mixture into the bowl of a food processor with extra cold butter cubes and cream and process until very smooth. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste. It should really come together once you add the seasoning.
Step 4 - Press the mixture through a fine sieve. Pour into sterilised jars or containers. I then just put this in the fridge to set a little while I clarified the butter. I didn't throw out the leftover bits in the sieve as they were quite fine and I put them on a sandwich for Mr NQN.
5. Clarified butter is just butter with the milk solids removed (the white milky part that sits at the bottom of melted butter). To clarify the butter, heat it gently over a very low heat without stirring. Remove from heat and allow to stand - as the butter cools the milk solids will separate to the bottom and the liquidy sunshine yellow clarified butter will sit at the top. Spoon this carefully onto the top of the pate to seal it and refrigerate for 2 hours until set.