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Welcome back to my series of Dinner Delight. These are perfect recipes for your friends
and family, and they are quick and easy, which is perfect when you have unexpected guests.
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In this episode, I am going to show you how to cook a really simple chicken liver pate
with port and sage. It's just a little twist on the classic, and then to serve with it
delicious pickled cauliflower.
So to start with, pan on nice and hot. These are chicken livers from the supermarket, and
they have been cleaned.
Sometimes if you get them from the butcher, you will need to just clean any of the white,
sinewy bits off, but you can always ask them to do it if you can't be bothered. So, getting
a pan nice and hot, a little bit of olive oil, and obviously in pate the majority of
the fat comes from butter.
So I am going to melt a little bit of butter with that oil. And the reason for the oil
and the butter together? Butter gives it delicious flavor, and the oil stops the butter from
burning.
So while that's melting down, I have just cut the livers into slightly smaller sections
so they cook quickly. What we are looking for is a delicious caramelized edge on them,
to give extra flavor to the pate.
All the ingredients for this recipe can be found in the description box.
So my butter is foaming away, and I can now add my livers.
Now you do not want to mess around with these too much. You want to allow them to get some
color on them. So just leave them for a minute or so, and I am going to add a little bit
of black pepper.
Now if you're not a fan of livers or kidneys and things like that, which to be honest with
you, I am not, this is the perfect way of doing it. I love chicken liver pate and chicken
liver parfaits, but to eat liver on its own, I am a bit squeamish. It is not, not my favorite,
and I think it is from years of abuse as a child at school, with liver and bacon and
said things.
So if you do not like it, you give this a go, because it is really delicious and creamy,
but without that sort of livery, irony taste.
So you can just start to see that they are starting to cook on the underside, just again
leave them for a minute. And as I said, sage. If you are not a fan of sage, you can use
thyme instead. You are not really looking for really strong flavor, just a subtle one,
so use about five sage leaves. I am just going to rip up. And you do not need to finely chop.
It's all going in the blender later.
So I am putting these in now so they will get nice and crispy, and sort of flavor the
oil that these livers are cooking in.
So you want to cook the livers all the way through because this is the only cooking they're
going to get. So my livers are nice and brown, and just about cooked through, and I am going
to add some port.
Traditionally, in chicken liver pate, it's brandy, and if you want to stick with that,
go ahead. My cooking is all about doing what you like. But I love a bit of port, and there
is always a bottle in the back of the cupboard that has not quite been finished. However,
this is a new one, but never mind.
So a good glug of port. And it might catch, it might not.
And you want to cook off the alcohol, so you want to leave that until it has practically
disappeared and you are left with that beautiful flavor in the pan.
Now the port is almost a reduced, and the center of the livers will still be pink, livers
are always pink, so do not think that is raw. You just want to feel them, and if they feel
firm, they're cooked. So those are done and the heat can come off.
And now for the next bit, the blending.
So you need one of these for this, a blender. And it does not matter what size you use because
you do it in batches, but there is no real way of getting around it. You have to do it
in this.
So, the livers can go in.
There is no need to leave them to cool. All the nice bits on the bottom, the sage leaves,
and the last residual bit of port can go in too.
Now you have probably noticed I have not put any salt in yet, and that is because I am
going to use salted butter. Some people like to use unsalted in their pates, but I am a
firm believer in salted butter. I do not think it is too strong with salt, and it just means
I do not have to season later.
So that can go in too. This is just room temperature.
And then all we need to do is just blend it until smooth.
Perfect. Now one thing I will say, livers when blended to give off a slightly sulfery
smell. It is because they are warm. It is nothing to worry about. If your livers smelt
fine when they were raw, don't panic. This is completely normal.
So this is now ready. Now it depends how you want to serve this. I will do it in little
ramekin and set it with a little butter on the top, but if you want you can put it in
a terrine mold and cut it and slice it. It is up to you.
So this is just a normal, white ramekin that I am going to fill up. This is a hearty, individual
portion, and as you can see, this is super runny. But as it sets, it will firm up.
This is a perfect starter for friends. And if you are having a dinner party you can make
it a day before, or two days before, and have it waiting in the fridge ready.
So I am just going to give that a tap down and then at this stage it can go in the fridge
for about two hours to set up.
Now because the chicken liver pate is so creamy and rich, I like something a little tangy
to go with it. And this maybe a bit odd, and again if you don't like cauliflower this is
a great way to try it because it doesn't have that sort of normal cauliflower taste. But
I'm going to do a little bit of pickled cauliflower. You could do anything, really. You could to
the same with cucumber or courgettes, or, I don't know, broccoli, green beans. It's
the same method. So about a hundred mills of white wine vinegar.
I like using white wine instead of malt because it's slightly milder and doesn't have quite
such a stick your fingers in the plug socket taste, but whatever you have got in the cupboard
is fine. And then about a hundred grams of sugar. So it is about equal quantities.
Now this is a basic pickling liquor, and you can spice it with whatever you would like.
You can pop a cinnamon stick in there, some coriander seeds, some star anise, whatever.
I am going plain and simple and traditional for this dish. Now I am just going to use
a few peppercorns and a good pinch of salt.
Now you just want to bring this to a simmer so that all the sugar has dissolved.
It will take a minute also. You do not want to boil it for ten, fifteen minutes so the
cauliflower becomes soggy. You want it to stay crispy. So once it is boiling, pop the
cauliflower in, and then we're just going to leave it to simmer for about a minute,
possibly two, and then turn it off and leave it in its juices.
It is so simple. And the perfect thing is, you can pop it in an air tight jar, like you
would do for a jam or a chutney, and then you can just leave it in the fridge and it
will stay perfect for another couple of months.
So now, all the sugar has been dissolved, and it is just bubbling away gently. I am
going to add my little florets of cauliflower.
Just give everything a bit of a stir and bring it back up to the bubble for about two minutes
maximum.
So if you are not sure whether it has been bubbling for long enough, just try a bit of
the cauliflower. You just want it to be tender but still have a real crunch.
And this is fine. So I am going to take off the heat, and you can pour it into a bowl
and leave it to cool. Or you can pop it into a jar for later.
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button?
So my pate has been in the fridge for about two hours, and now I am just going to cover
it with butter, which actually helps to preserve it. So again, if you want to do this two days
in advance for some friends coming around for the weekend, you can.
So I'm just going to melt a little bit of the butter. Now, I already have some salted
butter in my fridge, but if you have unsalted, you can melt that as well. But with the salted
butter, you might just want to take off a little bit of the ***, which is a horrible
word, but really the only one that describes it, the *** that will form as it's melting.
If you take that off, you will get a clearer butter for the top.
So now my butter is melted. I am just going to take off the white foam that's just come
from on to the top of the butter.
Now all that is is salt and a bit of protein that splits out from the fat when you heat
it. There is nothing wrong with it. It is just not that pretty.
Now with the rest of the clear butter, I am just going to pour a little layer over the
top of the pate as a preservative.
Pop that straight back into the fridge for another hour or so or overnight to set.
So my pate has been in the fridge for about two or three hours, and now it is perfectly
set, and it has got this lovely butter topping set to it. And I have just toasted a bit of
sourdough, but again you can use whatever you want. Traditional really thin melba toast,
brown bread, whatever you would like.
And then some of this beautiful pickle. Now I am not going to pick out the peppercorns,
just tell the guests not to eat them.
And this really does cut through the creaminess of that delicious pate.
I am just going to have a little try.
The pate is deliciously creamy, and you can really taste that delicious port with the
sage running through it. Perfect.
I really hope you can join me in my next episode in my series Dinner Delights.
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