This is a great pâté and one of my favourites. Its great with toast, crackers or melba toast.
We would often have "Dip" parties - everyone would bring a dip and a bottle of wine and we would spend a great evening!
I know some people are scared of liver, or dislike the taste but they should give this a try!
Ingredients
1kg of chicken livers ( washed, trimmed and cleaned)
some olive oil,
1 tsp fresh rosemary, very finely chopped
1tsp sage very finely chopped
zest of one small orange,
2 cloves garlic, crushed,
salt and pepper to taste
100ml of brandy,
100ml of red wine,
250g of butter,
2 bay leaves.
About 8 bacon rashers (fry - or grill - and put on paper towels to remove the oil. Don't let the bacon crisp however, it has to be cooked just enough)
Method
Fry the chicken livers in the olive oil, and add the herbs, orange zest and garlic.
Do not over fry or the livers will get tough. they should be brown on the outside but left pink inside.
Season, remove from the pan and put into a blender
Put the pan back heat and pour in 100ml of brandy, 100ml of red wine, and bring to the boil, stirring and scraping any residue from the sides.
Pour this into the blender along with 200g of butter and process until smooth.
Line a terrine with the cooked bacon strips
Pour the pâté into a suitable terrine and decorate the top with a bay leaf or two, a couple of sprigs of rosemary and some curls of orange zest.
Melt 50g of butter very gently over a low heat – do not allow it to bubble – and carefully pour the clear part of the butter over the top of the pâté, making sure all is under a thin layer of clarified butter.
Leave it to cool, and then put it in the refrigerator, covered with a lid or foil.
You can turn it out to serve, it looks rather pretty - or else just leave in the terrine.