I haven't made pâté for a while but as we move towards spring, it comes back on the menu as it is the perfect starter for a meal outside in the sun.
Previously, when I have made pâté, I have made large terrines can be a little difficult to portion and freeze (pâté freezes really well). This time I wanted to try mini terrines as they look better on a serving plate and they are easier to store. This is probably the fastest terrine recipe I have come up with and possibly one of the best. You will need:
500 grams minced pork
500 grams chicken livers
2 cloves of garlic
2 shallots (not spring onions or scallions)
Brown mushrooms
Fresh herbs (eg thyme, oregano, marjoram, parsley)
1 slice of good bread
1 egg
Butter and olive oil for frying
Finely chop or process the garlic and shallots and soften in a frying pan with some butter and olive oil. Pre-heat an oven to 150 deg C. Whilst this is cooking, process the herbs and the bread until you have a fine crumb. Today I used thyme, lemon thyme, oregano, marjoram, a few mint leaves and parsley stalks as these are what I currently have in the garden. I would have preferred to use parsley leaves rather than stalks but the damn possums keep on eating all my parsley leaves. Put the herb and crumb mixture into a bowl along with the softened shallots and garlic add the pork mince. Process the chicken liver and add that. Add the egg and combine until evenly mixed.
Spoon the mixture into mini loaf tins having greased the tins with butter, I used one with 8 loaves. Place in a Bain maree filled with hot water, cover with foil and then put in the oven for an hour. After an hour, check the temperature in the middle of the loaves. If it is 70 deg C or over they are done. If not, return them to the oven until they are.
Here they are just about to go into the oven.
And here they are plated with cornichon and cocktail onions and Chiabbata, quite cute I think!
We had this for a starter before dinner this evening. Great for building up an appetite!
