Chicken Pate

Ingredients

240g chicken livers
125g butter
125mL heavy cream
1 small brown onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic
1-2 tsp of herb or spice of your choice
45mL alcohol of your choice
Clarified butter or ghee for covering pate

Method

Clean the livers by removing any sinew and other bits that may look discoloured. Set aside.

In a really hot pan, add a few tablespoons of butter. If you are using raw onion, cook until transparent; if you are using caramelised onion put it straight into the pan.

Immediately add the liver and garlic and saute until the livers are just done. This is easy to determine, make sure they are well browned on the outside, cut one open and if it’s still juicy keep cooking. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes and the liver should still be a bit springy to touch.

Add cream and remaining butter and herbs or spice and give everything a good stir. Only cook until the cream and butter are warm.

Place mixture in a food processor, add alcohol of choice and blitz. When well blitzed, transfer the still warm pate into a nice earthenware or ceramic dish, or sealable glass jar. Smooth out the surface and cover pate with a shallow layer of clarified butter or ghee.

If you don’t crack the butter layer, this will keep for weeks and the flavours will slowly improve. Refrigerate and always serve cold.

Note:

You are under no obligation to use as much butter or cream as this recipe calls for. If you do, you’ll get a very smooth, soft pate. If you liver up and go lower on the butter and cream, you’ll end up with a thicker, more spreadable pate.

Ghee is easy to make – just put some butter in a saucepan and gently melt until the yellow butterfat is on top and the white milk solids have collected at the bottom. Pour off the butterfat and save it – that’s the ghee.

You can also do this pate with duck or goose liver, if you can get them. These livers are larger, you’ll need to cut them up a little before cooking.

Credits: The Dips and Spreads Guide, New Holland Publishers RRP $24.99 available from all good book retailers or online at www.newhollandpublishers.com.