Chicken Liver Pate... What else?

A few weekends ago I was, as you could expect, shopping and having a blast at the supermarket; when I saw them, four trays of chicken livers. They looked nice and fresh and instantly came to me, why not make pate? I have wanted to make pate for quite some time and the last time was over 4 years ago. It was just about time.

The process is quite long, but I enjoy it so I don't mind it.
The night before cooking them I cleaned the livers (about 1 kilo in total), cut away the fat, placed them in a bowl with milk and let them rest in the fridge until the next day. Someone told me this takes the bitterness away from the livers; I like them either way, but I wanted it to turn out great, hence the extra step.

The next day I came back from work and in just 2 hours I was supposed to be at a friend’s house (I should have planned beforehand).

If you know me, you would be aware that I’m very, very, lazy by nature; my first instinct would be to let the livers sit in the fridge for one more day and maybe cook them the following day. So you’ll all be amazed (I even amazed myself) when I did the exact opposite I lit up the stove and started to cook.

I had less than an hour to make it, let’s get to it.

First I coarsely chopped a small bag of shallots (300 grams), two thick slices of smoked bacon and a tray of portobello mushrooms. I placed my beloved heavy bottom pot on the stove top, slapped some butter and started sautéing (is that properly said?) the shallots first, then added the bacon and finally the mushrooms. Once they are all nice and brown (brown, but not burnt) y set some of the mushrooms aside for latter and added the livers, which I had previously drained out of the milk. Ah, almost forgot, I added four or five twigs of thyme tied together (it’s the basic flavor of this pate).

The livers cook fairly quick, I would say in less than 10 minutes. Basically when they start breaking apart they are done. At that point I took out the thyme; I turned down the fire, and added almost a stick of butter (this helps harden the mixture when it cools) Once the butter had melted I turned the fire off and added cream (a lot of cream, about 300ml).

At this point it was time to use one of my kitchen favorites. My hand mixer (it’s a must have) I processed the mixture until it was nice and silky, almost done.

So, what is missing?

My lifetime friend …The salt

I almost forgot about it, but that’s ok. With this type of food, which is basically a pure, you can add the salt at any time. Once the whole thing is properly salted (and peppered) I chopped the mushrooms that I had previously cooked and added them to the mixture.

That is it. I placed all in one of my many tupperwares, putted it in the fridge and I still had time to shower before going to my friend’s house.

-------

Good thing about it is that once it is cool I can be cut in slices. I took those slices, individually wrapped them in plastic film and froze them.

If I’m having friends over, I just take one slice out of the freezer the night before, let it defrost in the fridge (this way it never has the chance to get too warm and spoil) and ask them to bring the bread.

Now I don’t want to toot my own horn, but all of those who tried it liked it, I’m talking about over 25 people (when you have 2 kilos of pate you have enough to share with everyone). Either that or they care enough about my feelings to tell me so. In any case, thank you guys.

So that is what you make with 2 pounds of chicken livers. How you enjoy it is up to you. I prefer nice warm bread and friends

-----

I hope you like sweet things. On the next post I’ll tell you about my Mom’s Dutch Apple Pie.