The elegant pate

BY GRAHAM HAWKES

Pate-making has had a long and illustrious history.

Starting out in life more as a means of preserving produce, pates and terrines now have a well-earned reputation for their elegance and sophistication.

All sorts of tasty meaty morsels were made into pates and terrines over the centuries then sealed with lard and put away for later enjoyment.

Sidney Smith the renowned 18th century wit and viveur (and apparently a fine parson also) claimed that heaven was "eating pate de foie gras to the sound of trumpets".

I would well sacrifice the sound of trumpets for a good honest bottle of wine.

Needless to say on the menus of the three-star restaurants of Paris' right bank at the time, that may not have seemed too wild a claim.

Pates and terrines can be equally at home in a picnic basket or on a grand buffet table.

Today, they have become one of the world's most adaptable culinary forms. Portable, even tempered and long-lived.

They can be dressed up and decorated with sparkling Aspec, garnished with radishes, pastry leaves or anything else that takes the fancy and then they are fit for any memorable feast.

Or on the other side of the scales a simple chicken liver pate (now one of the easiest dishes to make thanks to a food processor) needs only a simple salad, some fresh crusty bread and it will make the most satisfying of lunches.

Many different cultures have enjoyed pate, of sorts, over the past generations.

Central Europe perhaps boasts the more classic styles of pate and terrines, but let's not forget the good old English pork pie is pate of a form along with the Indian samosa, the Chinese dim sum, the Spanish empanadas, the Russian kulebyaka and the Greek spanakopitta. These are all pies of one sort or another using a force meat (minced meat) as the filling.

Rather than get into the very heavy side of pate, terrine-making I thought we would start with a very basic, yet extremely tasty pate.

This chicken liver pate takes little effort in either the preparation or cooking and you can very easily adjust the flavour to suit yourself with the addition of fresh herbs, cracked pepper, orange zest and juice or, alternatively, you can make it a little lighter with the addition of more cream or if, like me, you prefer a little richness and a more buttery style, simply add some melted clarified butter.

I have served this pate with a very simple green salad and some fresh crunchy baguette.

Chicken liver pate ingredients

• 500g chicken livers
• 300g fatty bacon, rind removed and cut into 1-inch squares
• 1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
• Handful fresh parsley w2 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp salt w1 stem fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 75g butter
• 60ml cream
• 250ml milk

Method: Soak the chicken livers in the milk overnight. When ready to prepare your pate drain well.

Melt the butter in a heavy-based frying pan.wSaute the onion, finely chopped garlic and bacon in the butter without colouring. Continue to cook until the onion is transparent.

Add the chicken livers and continue cooking slowly with the garlic, onions and bacon in the butter for one minute.

Add the thyme, bay leaf and parsley and continue to cook slowly for seven to eight minutes (until the chicken livers are cooked).

Season well with salt and freshly ground pepper and allow to cool.

Remove the bay leaf and place the rest of the ingredients into the food processor. Process until smooth.

Mix in the runny cream and adjust the seasoning to your taste.

Refrigerate until set. If you want to keep the pate for later use cover the top of the pate with clarified butter to preserve.

Bon appetit.

- © Fairfax NZ News