Spiked Pâté by Tom

Spiked Pâté by Tom

Bon Jour!

What better way to start the gastronomic tour of France than with a  pâté.

For a New Year's Eve get together, we found this simple, but extremely good, pâté recipe in "Capital Classics, Recipes from the Junior League of Washington, D.C.".  Junior League recipes are usually tried and true, so we thought this would be a good one to attempt.

And voilà !  It was c'est magnifique.  Easy and tasty.  Not liver-y.  What more can you ask for.  Everyone at the party loved it.

Spiked  Pâté  
(from Capital Classics, Recipes from the Junior League of Washington, D.C.)

Serves 18-20 easily

1 pound chicken livers
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 pound liverwurst
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup port
1/4 cup brandy
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cardamom

In a sauté pan, sauté the chicken livers until they are lightly browned in the butter.  The chicken livers will actually be "swimming" in the melted butter.  Make sure the chicken livers are well cooked through.  Every once in a while with a knife, cut through a thick liver and make sure it is not red.

Once done, pour into a food processor.  Add all of the remaining ingredients and purée .  Make sure it is really well pureed and blended.

This makes a lot of pâté, so choose your serving bowl carefully.  I actually ended up pouring the pâté  into five different bowls.  The larger bowl, I used about a 2 cup size, went into the refrigerator overnight.  The other four smaller ramekin bowls I covered and put into the freezer.  It is important to let this firm up in the refrigerator overnight.  Allows the flavors to marry and the pâté to set.

Serve with any choice of breads, crackers, or bagel bites.

                 ---Tom