Pâté Cake (Baker’s man!)

~  Menu  ~

Chicken Liver Fritter

Tender Leaves with Balsamic Glaze

Toasted Ciabatta

Glass of Red

A Brandied Peach with Clotted Cream and Brandy Snap Crumbs

Coffee

My friend Carol gave me a little pot of homemade Chicken Liver Pâté ~ delicious and happily rather garlicky so I didn’t have to share with my Real Man who, of course, doesn’t like that sort of thing. ***  I did feel a bit panicky for a moment when I realised I had no red wine (!) but then I remembered a modicum of leftover dessert wine in the fridge and calmed down.  Phew! 

I ran out of toast before I finished the pâté and so trying to be a good girl I put the pot in the fridge for later and, of course, forgot about it. 

Today I noticed it and thought “hmm”, among other things.  I was soubising some onions at the time  so added a spoonful of them to the pâté together with enough fresh breadcrumbs to make the texture capable of holding together.  I was tempted to add and egg but at the same time didn’t fancy it so didn’t and I’m glad.

I then made a little pâté cake, coated it in panko crumbs and fried till crisp.  It worked out really well with the sharp sweetness of the dressing and the crunch of the toast against the rich lushness of the pâté.

Last night my darling brought home a jar of Tesco’s Brandied Peaches reduced from £3.49 to 38p and this is just one of the reasons I love him!  To make sure I use them to their best possible advantage I thought I ought to try one and assess the possibilities.   I added a little clotted cream and having finished off my amaretti only yesterday sprinkled with a few bits of broken brandy snap out of the biscuit tin.  A cup of coffee and my lunch was complete.

Here are some more ideas if you, like me, find yourself looking in the fridge and thinking “Bugger me, what shall I do with this bit of pâté?”

~   Make a savoury butter.  Just mash the room temp pâté with about the same amount of soft butter.  Taste and season as necessary.  Roll into a log and chill (or freeze).  Slice and serve on top of steak or burgers or deglaze the pan after cooking same and then stir in a piece of pâté-butter to monter au beurre as we say in the trade. Or perhaps we don’t, we used to!  Literally it means “to build with butter” ie to add texture and gloss to a sauce by stirring in cold butter at the last minute.

~   Reduce a little red wine to about half its quantity and stir in the pâté till melted and merged.  Add cream or butter and seasonings to taste and use as a sauce, if there is enough of it then toss with freshly cooked pasta and sprinkle with bacon salt which is lovely stuff, recipe here.

~   Crumble or cream the pâté and mix together with  vinaigrette to make an interesting salad dressing, particularly good on spinach and bacon salads.

~  When making Beef Wellington  spread chicken liver pâté or leftover pâté de foie gras (you know how it is!) down the centre of the pastry before adding the seared fillet of beef!

~   Make Dirty Rice as follows …

Faux Dirty Rice

Dirty Rice is a Cajun dish comprising rice cooked with chicken livers, gizzards etc. which make it look dirty but taste grand.  Here is my cobbled together version ...

1 onion – finely chopped

1 rib celery – finely chopped

½ carrot – finely chopped

maybe ½ a red pepper – finely chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

smidge of garlic

salt, pepper and cayenne (optional)

1 mug long grain rice

2 mugs chicken stock

an assembly of porky things eg. minced pork, coarsely chopped bacon, crumbled     sausage etc.

leftover chicken liver pâté

~   Fry together the onions, celery, carrot and red pepper till tender and starting to brown.

~   Stir in the garlic plus salt and pepper and maybe a little cayenne and then stir in the rice.

~   Pour in the stock, stir a little and then bring to a boil

~   Turn down the heat, cover and simmer till all the liquid has been absorbed which takes 12-15 minutes. 

~   Meanwhile sauté the meats in a little more oil till cooked through.

~   When the meats are ready stir in the pâté and allow it to warm and melt.

~   When the rice is cooked pour over the meat mixture, cover and leave a few minutes for flavours to meld before gently folding in and serving, preferably with hot sauce to hand.  A parsley sprinkle would be a good idea too.

***   Apropos of my partner and garlic, etc. I shall be writing a Really Interesting post (don’t say anything!) in the next few days about Super Tasters and a great book I am reading.  For people who don’t eat “foreign muck” on principal, however, I should like to point out that potatoes (from which chips are made, in case you've been wondering) are from South America.