OK, I confess! I went a little overboard a while ago trying out different liver pâté recipes. In total I made three different batches of pâté using two different recipes and different mixes of beef and chicken liver. To be honest with you - after having worked with the liver (not the greatest thing to touch!) and with its “special” aroma – I was not even sure that I wanted to taste the pâté any longer. Fortunately it had to cool down in the fridge overnight – and the next day I was ready to dig in!
The first recipe comes from Allers, but I changed it just a little – not sure if it was for better or for worse…..
Hjemmelaget Leverpostei (Homemade liver pâté)
1. Cut 500 gr liver in cubes and poach in boiling water for 3 minutes. The recipe called for pork liver but I could not find it in the stores near our house. So instead I used beef and chicken liver. I made one batch with only beef liver and another batch with about half and half of beef and chicken liver.
2. Put the poached liver along with the following ingredients in a bowl and mix just a little with a large spoon.
· 100 gr vegetable shortening (the recipe said 250 gr but I thought that was way too much)
· Half small onion, chopped
· 2 to 3 anchovies (I think I put more than that!)
3. Grind the above mix in the meat grinder. Once for coarser pate (which is what did) or twice if you want a finer pate.
4. Add the following ingredients to the ground liver mix and mix well:
· 2 tbs olive oil
· 1 dl flour
· 2 eggs (whole)
· 2 dl heavy cream
· 2 tsp salt
· Plenty of freshly ground pepper
· ½ tsp ground ginger
· 1 tsp thyme (I used fresh thyme)
5. Preheat oven to 175°C (approximately 340° F).
6. Put liver mixture in small oiled loaf tins and decorate with thyme sprigs or pieces of anchovy. I used some small aluminum tins I found at the store. They have lids that I think will be good for storage.
7. Cook in oven in a water bath for about one hour till the internal temperature is 76°C. It took 55 minutes in my oven to reach this temperature.
8. Let the pâté cool down in the forms.
9. The original recipe indicated that the pâté can be frozen. If it is edible and we do not eat it all at once, I will try to freeze it and I will let you know later on how that turns out.
Before the oven:
After the oven:
Pâté Poulet
This was a recipe I found in the Crème de Colorado Cookbook, but once again I made some modifications and I have to take all the blame for the potential disastrous result. I prepared this recipe last and as you can see the trend is obvious… measurements did not matter as much at this stage…..it was all done “al ojo”.
1. In a large pan sauté the following ingredients until the liver is just done. I have no idea when the liver is “just done” so I may have overcooked it….. ugh! It was definitely not raw.
· About 2 pounds chicken liver
· Green onions, about a cup
· Plenty of butter
· A generous amount of fresh thyme
2. Add the following ingredients to the mix:
· ½ cup butter, cut into pieces that will fit in the meat grinder
· 4 slices of bacon, browned and chopped
· A bunch of anchovies (probably 4 to 5 pieces)
3. Grind the mix in the meat grinder (or food processor).
4. Reduce ½ cup sherry to about ¼ cup in a small saucepan and add to the ground liver mix.
5. Add the following to the ground liver and mix well:
6. Add salt. The recipe suggested ½ tsp, but at this stage I was just doing it “al gusto” so who knows how much I added.
7. Stir in heavy cream till the consistency looks right! …..coming from the one who has always complained about the Chilean recipe books that are not specific about measurements….{eye roll}.
8. This recipe filled four small oiled loaf tins which I decorated with chopped green onions. I left the tins in the fridge overnight to chill and firm.
The Tasting
Alvaro and I apparently have the same taste in liver pâté. We both preferred the beef liver version with the mixed beef and chicken next. Neither of us cared much for the chicken liver only version of the pâté, but that is probably because we prefer the coarser pâté and for some reason the chicken liver turned out very fine. Both Valeria and Nibaldo only liked the chicken liver pâté. I guess we have some for all tastes!
We had lots of leftovers which were frozen for future use and we will update you on how it tastes after defrosting.
Let us know if you are able to come up with improved versions of the liver pâté recipes. We love pâté and nothing is better than home made with all pronounceable ingredients.
Butter Tarts
a la Norah and her mum
Thanks to Norah and her mum for sharing this recipe with us. We should after all try something really Canadian! We classify them as ‘for Christmas’ because it made us feel all ‘Christmassy’ when we ate them…
Ingredients:
-
1/3 cup butter, softened
-
1 cup light brown sugar
-
1 egg
-
1 tsp vanilla essence
-
1/2 cup raisings
-
1/2 cup currants
-
Optional: chopped walnuts
-
1 dozen regular or 2 dozen mini uncooked frozen tart shells
We chose to make our own short crust pastry as we were too lazy to run across the road to the supermarket for the frozen tart shells (blush). Recipe from Delia Smith’s cook book:
-
110 g flour
-
50 g of butter at room temperature (should have been 50/50 margarine and lard but we were clean out of that!)
-
a pinch of salt
-
cold water from the fridge to mix (4-5 table spoons)
Directions:
Pastry dough
1. Crumble the flour and butter and salt evenly together. Do it quickly - i.e. don’t mess with it for too long.
2. Add water to make a consistency that can be rolled out.
3. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes or so
Filling (while pastry dough rests)
4. Preheat oven to 205 degrees Celsius
5. Cream butter and brown sugar
6. Add egg and vanilla
7. Stir in raisins and currants (and optional chopped walnuts)
Pastry shells
8. Roll the pastry dough thinly and cut circles to fit the tins.
9. Make 14-16 shells. Because our shells were 6.5 cm in diameter we had too much filling for the 12 we made. Being new at this we therefore overfilled them the filling came over the top when they were baked.
10. Divide filling evenly among tart shells.
11. Bake for 15 minutes
12. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks. We were terribly impatient and dug some out of their tins while still warm…. still gooey goodness!
Nam Nam - for sure.
Martini
(a la Rob) – 4 glasses
- 2 measures of Gin
- 1 measure of extra dry Vermouth
- 3 drops of Angostura aromatic bitters
- 1 strip of lemon peel per person
- Mix all ingredients and keep in freezer until cold
- Serve in cold glasses
This recipe dates back to our Thanksgiving celebration in Ithaca, New York, in 2001. Read more about it here: http://www.rygnestad.net/family/potter/newsletters/thanksgiving.htm
Apple Crumble
(from leftover apple sauce and sweet potato topping)
Ingredients:
- Left over apple sauce (see other post: /?p=4)
- Left over topping from sweet potato dish (see other post: /?p=10)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
- Pour cold apple sauce into oven proof dish
- Spread topping over the top
- Bake for 20 minutes until it’s brown on the top
- Serve with vanilla ice-cream
This recipe dates back to our Thanksgiving celebration in Ithaca, New York, in 2001. Read more about it here: http://www.rygnestad.net/family/potter/newsletters/thanksgiving.htm
Sunday Morning Pancakes
(a la Rob) – serves 5 people
Also works well as a dessert if you happened to get up late!
Ingredients:
- 15 ounces plain flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 5 eggs
- milk
- Break eggs into flour
- Add enough milk to mix to a stiff paste
- Beat until smooth
- Add more milk and mix to a pouring consistency
- Heat frying pan over medium heat
- Spray pan with oil
- Pour in batter to just cover the pan
- When it is set, flip pancake and fry for another two minutes – till finished
- Transfer to plate and keep warm in oven while you cook the rest of the pancakes
- With little batter left, dribble batter into pan to make animals (see snowman-illustration)
- Serve with maple syrup, honey, butter, sugar and jam.
This recipe dates back to our Thanksgiving celebration in Ithaca, New York, in 2001. Read more about it here: http://www.rygnestad.net/family/potter/newsletters/thanksgiving.htm