As promised last week, I am bringing you the Chicken Liver Pâté recipe I tried. Let me tell you… making it was quite an experience!
I needed a nice starter dish to take to my big brother’s house for a dinner party, and reasoned that pâté would be good. That’s always on the starter menus in restaurants, right?
I confess, I’ve never ordered it in my puff. I’ve probably tried chicken liver pâté once in my life, nibbled from Irene’s plate or something. I’ve always struggled to get over the fact that it was liver. Liver, for crying out loud!
However, everyone I know enjoys chicken liver pâté, and I aim to please! I knew it would be a good learning experience for me too, trimming those livers and handling raw chicken without a) crying or b) vomiting.
*CAUTION: DRAMA QUEEN ALERT*
Well… I never thought it through properly, at all! I got the livers from the butcher (charged £4.00 for 500g as well, got well ripped off, I later learned!), came home and googled “how to trim chicken livers” for a bit of direction. When I read about how to avoid bubbles of bile and green areas, I almost started greetin (sorry if that grossed you out, but if I had to see it, I had to share with you…).
Armed with some shoulder length marigolds and a scarf wrapped around my nose and mouth (seriously, my glasses were steaming up and everything), I set to work on the offending organs. Whimpering away, I cut the middle section out of each liver and cut away any sinew (or, as I prefer to call it, sineeeaaauuuwww). The first one was the worst, and it did get easier, but I was well glad to see the bag empty!
I washed them thoroughly, disinfected my entire kitchen, then got myself organised. The original recipe is from the BBC website, and I didn’t have the confidence to change anything this time round. Here’s what I did:
Ingredients (Serves 6-8):
500g chicken livers, trimmed
200g butter, melted
50ml double cream
1tbsp brandy (I’m sure you won’t miss it if you skip this though)
coarse sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
You can garnish with bay leaves and dried cranberries. I didn’t bother.
First, I fried my chicken livers in two batches, in some of my melted butter.
Everyone says to leave it pink in the middle. I’m sorry, I won’t get away with poisoning my family. I cooked mines until they were REALLY done (around 5-7 mins each batch). I promise you, the end result didn’t suffer for this. It’s your life though (and digestive system).
I blitzed the chicken livers with a hand blender until they were really smooth, like this:
I poured in the rest of the melted butter, brandy and double cream, then blended for another minute or so. I later realised I wasn’t meant to add the brandy yet, but it was fine. Next, I seasoned with salt & pepper and poured it into my little serving dish.
My original plan was to make this the day before and let the flavours develop in the fridge, but Hurricane Bawbag got in the way of that! I let it set in the fridge for three hours before we had it with some crusty bread and gorgeous homemade chutney, made by my brother’s girlfriend Lindsay.
I wasn’t sure if I’d be brave enough to eat the pâté, after all we’d been through, but then I wouldn’t be able to talk about it here. So, spurned on by everyone elses “mmmm”-ing, I took the plunge… and loved it!
It was very creamy and flavoursome, and gorgeously rich. I’d definitely make it again, although I’ll probably pay a butcher £100 to trim the livers for me first.
I’d sneaked some pâté into a wee ramekin when I wish dishing up. So, here’s what it looked like the next day, once it had set and everything:
If you’re having a dinner party, or even if you’re just a big pâté fan, I would thoroughly recommend this dish. If anything, it’s made me bolder around “normal” chicken. I cut up some chicken breast the other day… not even a flicker of nausea. Result!
Give it a bash! Enjoy
