I just posted this in reply to the pork selling post in Pigs, but then thought it would be good to put here as well
Are you getting the liver? If so I would heartily recommend making pate - I made a three pork pate (rough) and then a smooth pork liver, they were really fab. I got the recipes from googling the net:
Nigel Slater’s recipe for a smooth and creamy paté
(Enough for 6)
Ingredients
• chicken livers – about 400g - I substituted the chicken liver for pok liver - it works Cheesy
• milk – enough to soak the livers in
• butter – 110g, plus 50g at the very end
• whipping cream – 90ml
• brandy
Method
The first thing I do is to trim off any boingy bits and remove any traces of the gall bladder. Then I sliced the liver into sizes comparable with chicken livers. Then I covered the liver with milk and let it soak for about half an hour.
Next melt the butter in a frying pan, drain the milk from the liver and, when the butter is very hot, pop the drained slices of liver in. Fry quickly to get a nice browned texture on both sides. Take care not to overcook it or the paté won’t have that lovely pinkness.
The next step is to put all the ingredients (the liver, butter, and cream plus salt and pepper for seasoning) into a food processor and blitz it to make it as smooth as you can. Pour a glug or two of brandy into the pan which you used to cook the liver, bring to the boil and let the brandy soak up all the meat juices remaining in the pan. Pour the brandy and juices from the pan into the liver mixture and blitz again.
No matter how much you’ve blitzed the paté, there will still be some graininess, although it should still be pinkish.
You could stop there as you’ve already made the basic paté but in Nigel Slater’s words, “Now, using a rubber spatula, push the mixture through a stainless steel sieve into a bowl. I know this is deeply boring, and the sieve is yet another thing to wash up, but it really does make a crucial difference to the paté, turning the grainy and the mundane into the blissfully velvety.”
Now put the paté into a suitable dish. I used a large ramekin. Smooth the top and put it in the fridge to set.
Next you’re supposed to faff about with clarified butter to top it. I do this sometimes just for the appearance of the paté but I’ve found that it’s not really necessary. Cover with clingfilm to stop any discolouration. Scoff it up within two or three days – if it lasts that long.
3 pork pate
Ingredients
• 10-12 rindless streaky bacon rashers (125-150g/4-5oz), stretched
• 6 whole sage leaves and 1tbsp fresh chopped sage leaves
• 1 thick slice of bread (about 50-60g/1ľ-2oz)
• 250g (8oz) fresh pig's liver, membrane and tough ventricles removed
• 250g (8oz) lean minced pork
• 1 small onion, peeled and chopped
• 1-2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• Good pinch of nutmeg
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4tbsp brandy or port
To serve
Method
1. Set the oven to gas mark 3 or 160°C. Line the loaf tin with 7-8 rashers of the bacon. Tuck whole sage leaves underneath the bacon in a row.
2. Tear the bread into a food processor and whizz for a few seconds to make coarse crumbs. Snip the bacon trimmings and the rest of the rashers into smaller pieces. Add these and the roughly chopped liver to the breadcrumbs and whizz for a few seconds to combine, then add the minced pork, onion, garlic, chopped sage, nutmeg, a generous amount of seasoning and the brandy or port. Whizz again, but not too long unless you want a very smooth pâté. If you haven't got a food processor, finely chop the meat and onion and mix it all together with your hand.
3. Push the mixture down into the bacon-lined tin. Cover with greased foil. Put the tin in a roasting tin and half-fill that tin with boiling water. Place it in the centre of the oven and cook for 1˝ hrs. Push a skewer into pâté. If the juices are still pink, cook for another 15 mins. Cool the pâté in the tin at room temperature, then overnight in the fridge.
4. Turn the pâté out on to a plate and cut slices for serving with toast and relish or chutney, and salad, if you like.
5. Woman's Weekly cooker editor Sue McMahon's tip: For speed and economy, double up on the recipe if you have two loaf tins, to make one for eating now and one to freeze
6. How to freeze: Cool pâté, turn out and wrap in cling film, then foil. Seal, label and freeze. Use within 2 months. Loosen wrappings and thaw in the fridge.
Woman's Weekly cooker editor Sue McMahon's tip: For speed and economy, double up on the recipe if you have two loaf tins, to make one for eating now and one to freeze How to freeze: Cool pâté, turn out and wrap in cling film, then foil. Seal, label and freeze. Use within 2 months. Loosen wrappings and thaw in the fridge. Nutritional values are for maximum number of servings Feature: Kate Moseley.
Enjoy!
Tish
Topic: Pork liver pate (Read 11737 times)
