Winter Pate
Yield: one 9 inch/23 cm pate
Prep time: about 30 min active time/about 90 min baking time
This pate is best made using a food processor, but a sharp knife will work, too.
4 ounces/115 grams chicken livers
1 shallot, peeled and roughly chopped
1-2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 pound/454 g ground pork, not lean
4 ounces/115 g pancetta, cubed
3 tbsp cranberries
2 tbsp brandy, Madeira, Cognac or port
2 tsp fine sea salt
2 tsp pepper
Preheat oven to 325F/160C
Have an 8in/22cm or 9in/23cm loaf pan ready.
You will also need a large mixing bowl to blend the ingredients.
Rinse the livers in a colander set in the sink. Carefully remove any greenish bits, as they are bile sacs and will make the pate bitter.
Pat livers dry and put them in processor (or chop finely). Blend into mush. They’ll look horrible. Disregard this. Tip into bowl.
You don’t have to wash the processor unless you find it unbearable. Add the shallot, garlic, and parsley. Just give them a rough chop. Don’t emulsify them. Add to the chicken livers.
Wash the processor.
Now add the remaining ingredients to the bowl. Blend with your clean hands and pat in the loaf pan. Tap pan on counter a few times to ensure there are no air bubbles.
Place the loaf pan in a larger baking pan. Carefully fill the baking pan with enough water to come halfway up the sides of the loaf pan. Place this setup in the oven.
Bake for 90 minutes, or until a thermometer placed in the middle of the pate reads 160F/71C. Lacking a thermometer, look for the loaf to exude clear to yellowish juices and be pulling away from the sides of the pan. It should not be pinkish, save the cranberries. Pate should look and smell done.
Remove pate from oven and pour cooking juices off into a heatproof measuring cup. As noted in the post, these juices are delicous. Don’t throw them out. Use in rice, soups, grains, poultry, or meat dishes. The cooking juices may be frozen. It is inadvisable to freeze the pate.
Pate may be sealed with clarified butter, duck, or pork fat for extended keeping. Once seal is broken, consume within 5 days.
If you do not seal the pate, allow it to rest, covered and refrigerated, up to three days. Eat within five days with pickles, bread, crackers, and/or salad.
Notes:
There are as many variations for pate making as there are cookbooks. You can substitute dried prunes plumped in liquor, currants, raisins, or any other dried fruit you like. You may also omit the fruit entirely.
Some people like chopped pistachio in their pates. I am not one of them.
Omit or use other liquor in the pate. Or use a dry white wine.
Substitute different meats and/or fats. If you do not eat pork, make the pate with chicken or duck. If you have come into an inheritance, Jacques Pepin and Julia Child have wonderful recipes for pate using pheasant and foie gras. Richard Olney’s Simple French Food is another excellent reference on pate and terrine making.