High West Chicken Liver Pâté

The Daring Cooks strike again!  And this time…it was Pâté time…!

Our hostesses this month, Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie of a The Chocolate Bunny, chose delicious pate with freshly baked bread as their June Daring Cook’s challenge! They’ve provided us with 4 different pate recipes to choose from and are allowing us to go wild with our homemade bread choice.

As I logged in to The Daring Cooks website to see what the challenge for June would be…I was filled with anticipation…and then I read the challenge – pâté.  Seriously…pâté, really….?  ‘Cause pâté has not been #1 on my list of things to make…but…okay…I guess.  Pâté it is.  Now if I were going to cook pâté…it was not going to be some vegetable terrine…it was going to be the real thing.  Authentic pâté, like with liver and everything!

So, I set out to collect the ingredients for such a culinary endeavor.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to find fresh chicken livers…?  I realize I live in L.A. and can most likely find anything and everything I want or would need for almost any dish…but it’s really dependent on looking in the right place.

My first thought was that I would be able to find all of the ingredients at my local Whole Foods…yeah, nope…not at all…I actually struck out entirely…and almost had to put off then entire project until the next weekend.  I then drove to our favorite Latino supermarket – King Ranch…and yep, they were able to supply half of my list…including pork belly and pork blade, but I was still having trouble finding fresh chicken livers.  On a whim, and not wanting to end up at home with all but one ingredient…I thought, maybe…just maybe, Ralph’s might have them.  Yes and no.  Yes they had them, but no I was not going to buy them.  Soupy, liquidy, pre-packaged livers from Foster Farms…nope…a big fat NO!  I couldn’t do it…especially not for a pâté.

I ended up at home, deflated after a morning spent first at the farmer’s market, and then with stops at no fewer than 3 different grocery stores , and still did not have all that I needed.  But I did have the internet.  After a few searches, including on Yelp… I found a place.  Taylor’s Meat Market in Sierra Madre.  After a quick call, I rushed out the door, fearing that as a small place, they might not be open on Sundays, and it was memorial day weekend…and I assumed they would be closed on Monday as well.

I walked in and immediately knew I had found us a butcher.  A real honest-to-goodness butcher.  Total: $1.77 for 14 oz. of chicken livers…FRESH chicken livers!  I was ready…pâté cooking would commence in the morning.

Onions…?  Check.

Livers…? Check.

Duck Fat…?  Check

It just really wouldn’t be right to start out a pâté with olive oil, and luckily, we happen to still have a sizable quantity of duck fat lying around in our fridge.

Oh…maybe I should let you in on something…it’s called the recipe…

1 tbsp duck fat, or butter

2 onions, coarsely chopped

300g (11 oz) chicken livers, trimmed

3 tbsp brandy, or any other liqueur (optional)

100g (3 1/2 oz, 1/2 cup) smoked bacon, diced

300g (11 oz) boneless pork belly, coarsely ground

200g (7 oz) boneless pork blade (shoulder), coarsely ground (or ground pork see note below)

2 shallots, chopped

1 tsp quatre-épices (or ¼ tsp each of ground pepper, cloves, nutmeg and ginger is close enough)

2 eggs

200 ml (7 fl oz, 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp) heavy cream

2 fresh thyme sprigs, chopped

Salt and pepper

NOTE: If you cannot find ground pork belly or blade, buy it whole, cut it into chunks, and pulse in the food processor. You can also replace the pork blade with regular ground pork.

Preheat oven to 200ºC (400ºF).

Melt the fat or butter in a heavy frying pan over low heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, until softened. Add the chicken livers and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, until browned but still slightly pink on the inside.

Remove the pan from heat. Pour in the brandy, light a match and carefully ignite the alcohol to flambé. Wait for the flames to go out on their own, carefully tilting the pan to ensure even flavoring. Set aside.

Put the minced pork belly and blade in a food processor, then add the onion-liver mixture and the
chopped shallots, and pulse until you obtain a homogenous mixture – make sure not to reduce it to a slurry.

Transfer to a bowl, and gradually stir in the chopped bacon, quatre-épices, cream, eggs, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper, and mix well. Spoon the mixture into a terrine or loaf pan, and cover with the terrine lid or with aluminum foil.
Prepare a water bath: place the loaf pan in a larger, deep ovenproof dish (such as a brownie pan or a baking dish). Bring some water to a simmer and carefully pour it in the larger dish. The water should reach approximately halfway up the loaf pan.

Put the water bath and the loaf pan in the oven, and bake for 2 hours. Uncover and bake for another 30 minutes. The terrine should be cooked through, and you should be able to slice into it with a knife and leave a mark, but it shouldn’t be too dry.

Refrigerate, as this pâté needs to be served cold.
Unmold onto a serving platter, cut into slices, and serve with bread.

NOTE: This pâté freezes well. Divide it into manageable portions, wrap tightly in plastic film, put in a freezer Ziploc bag, and freeze. Defrost overnight in the fridge before eating.

Start out sautéing the roughly chopped onions…making sure to just sweat them, don’t brown or caramelize them as you don’t want that sweetness.

Now, bring in the liquor.  I mean, here are all the other ingredients…or not all, but some.  Okay, moving on.  Oh wait…the Whiskey…I forgot to tell you all about the namesake of the recipe.

High West Rendezvous Rye Whiskey – this is not just any whiskey.  This is risky whiskey.  This is Utah whiskey.  Utah…Whiskey…I’ll say it again, because it may not have registered in your brain…those two words… together…at last.  Now the secret is out, Utah is making liquor…call in the reinforcements…the gentiles are out of control.  I think it was only a matter of time; Utah’s long been known for their microbrews, so it is not surprising that someone wanted to brew something a bit stronger…more surprising…is that it’s LEGAL.

High West Distillery is the first legally licensed distillery in the state since the end of Prohibition.  Whiskey takes time, so the Rendezvous Rye whiskey is a blend of a 6 year-old whiskey and a 16 year-old whiskey.  High West blends the whiskey with local Utah waters and bottles it until their ‘distilled in-state’ whiskeys are aged and ready.  But this isn’t moonshine…it is surprisingly good…and even earned a place in the ‘Top 10 New Whiskey’s of 2008″ according to Malt Advocate Magazine.

Okay, back to the stove.  Once the onions have softened…dump in the livers.  Being somewhat gentle with them, toss them around a bit, coat them in onions…get ’em cookin’.

At this point, it is important to note…that your entire house will begin to reek of LIVER.  You may not think you know what the smell of liver is…but trust me…you do.  If you have a dog…she will be going a bit insane, her nose working overtime, and her drooling uncontrollable.  It’s a meaty smell, not a bad one…but certainly distinct.  Just be prepared…(not that you can turn back now)…but your house will probably smell like liver and onions for 2 days.  Don’t worry, I’m sure the furniture will recover.

Once the liver has cooked through – I think it took about 10 minutes or so…it’s time for the fire.  Yep…not only did I tackle a recipe with organs, 3 kinds of pork, duck fat, grinding, puréeing, and of course…don’t forget the whole unmolding process…but I will also be flambéing.  It’s probably a good thing that Woody was busy at work through all this.

Safety first…I’m always thinking safety first – even though that might not ultimately affect the outcome.  So…first, when you’re ready…turn off the burner and remove your pan from the heat.  Then pour in the alcohol.  Next, light the alcohol with a lighter.  Done properly, you should see a blue flame…done improperly…you’ll need to call the fire department.  Make sure to swirl the pan so the flavor of the alcohol gets incorporated.

*Warning*  RAW MEAT!  There are a lot of raw meat photos…if it bothers you…skip down to the end.  Although, if all the porky goodness really bothers you…we might not be able to be friends anymore.

First – bacon.  Raw bacon is added to the pâté mixture after it’s roughly chopped.

Mmmmmmm….pork belly!  Skin and all…it is just what it says…the belly of the pork…err…pig.

Recipe called for ground pork blade…also known as shoulder…I ended up purchasing a package with thinly sliced, bone in, pork blade cutlets.

I trimmed them a bit and removed the bone, and gave them a rough chop.

Before beginning the mixing process, I wanted to have my mis en place ready to speed along the process.

Chopped shallots…

Quatre épices…aka ginger, ground pepper, nutmeg, and cloves.  Woody was a bit worried about these spices…but after tasting the final product…they are completely necessary to get a true flavor of pâté.

Thyme, shallots, and spices

I was unsure of exactly how many pans I would need for the pate…and how full each pan should be.

Don’t forget about the bacon, heavy cream and the eggs.

Grind the pork shoulder in your cuisinart, then dump in your chopped pork belly…and grind again.

Once you’ve reached a pleasant consistency, go ahead and dump in the cooled liver and onion mixture.  Pulse again.

And last into the cuisinart fun pool…shallots.  Toss ’em in and pulse a few times.

Dump everything into a large bowl.

*Note*  At this point, you might think to yourself…”eeewwwwwww!  It looks (and smells) a little too much like canned cat food.”  You might actually gag a little and feel as though someone has played a terrible joke on you by telling you that this is a real recipe, and ‘I promise…it’ll taste good’.  No…?  This didn’t occur to you…you didn’t have these exact thoughts…?  So you’re saying it’s just me…?  Okay…ummm…yeah…next step, please!

Add in the bacon…

Dump in the eggs…

…and the cream, thyme and spices…

DON’T FORGET TO SEASON.  I say yell this to make sure you won’t forget.  If you look closely, I did season…some salt and some pepper…and then a little more salt.  Hindsight is 20/20 and if you don’t season at every step…your dish will be bland.  Now…of course my pâté was not bland…never, but it could have certainly used a touch more salt.  For the extremely type A/anal/perfectionist cook…there is a fail safe way to make sure that you have the seasoning right…and they make you do this in cooking school…I’ve given fair warning.  Ideally you can bake, poach, fry, cook a small spoonful or canelle of the mixture until it is cooked through, then taste it and adjust the seasoning accordingly.  I did not do this…and the pâté could have used more salt.

Spread the mixture evenly in the dishes…no need to grease the pans…recall the 3 fatty delicious types of pork used!?!

Boil water for the bain-marie (fancy french term for a simple water bath).

Cover all dishes tightly with foil…no one like dry pâté.

*I had a small genius moment…always conscious of the potential for cuts, burns and the like, I thought to myself…”why not put the pans in the hot oven…and THEN pour in the BOILING water?“…all to avoid the sloshing of scalding water onto my delicate hands already scarred from time spent in professional kitchens.  I know, it’s the small successes.  I’m sure you all knew this and have felt smart for years…but let me bask for just a moment.

They go in the oven covered at a high temp, then the oven gets turned down,and they cook for a long time…then you pull the foil off and let the tops brown a bit before pulling them out of the oven and letting them cool.

*Note* Your house will now smell even more like liver…just letting you know.  There’s no turning back.

Make sure to let them cool entirely, refrigerate overnight or even for a couple of days in the pan.  If you unmold them while they are still warm, you will lose a lot of the fat that would get reabsorbed, and even though you had them covered for most of the cooking time…you’ll still get dry pâté.

I waited days, and by then…it looked like this when I unmolded it.

I trimmed just a little, mainly so it would sit flat on the plate, and wiped away some of the gelatin that was in a few places.

Tah Dah!

Slice thinly and plate with cornichon.

Serve with bread of choice, flake sea salt…and enjoy!

Whewwww!  That was a marathon of a post.  Perhaps my longest post to date…but in fairness, also in the top 3 for longest cooking project.  If you’re inspired to make this…please tell me…how did it go for you…?  Do you like pâté?