Pâté de Campagne

I bought myself a wee early Christmas present, a Le Creuset Terrine, I’ve always wanted one but the price tag has put me off until now, however I had plans for my contributions toward the Christmas fare and it seemed as good of an excuse as any to indulge myself. I’ve previously mentioned the Walnut bread and Chicken Liver Pâté, but they were mere sides to my ambitious plans, well maybe not that ambitious, of Pâté de Campagne is pretty simple to put together, although the mincer from hell almost broke my wrist but apart from that it’s just few simple steps and patience.

You’ll have to excuse the lack of gram measurements, as these will depend on how large your terrine is. Also if you can get pork liver, great, if not use chicken, the same can be said of caul fat which I couldn’t get my hands on so I used very fatty belly bacon.


Meat
2 parts pork shoulder
1 part pork back fat
1 part liver

Trim the livers and cut in half, cut the back fat and should in to cubes small enough to fit through your mincer feeder. Chuck the whole lot in a bowl that will fit in your fridge.


Marinade
Brandy
White wine
Sage
Thyme
Parsley
Shallots
Nutmeg
Pink Salt (optional, use 1% by weight of the meat)

Roughly chop the herbs and shallots and toss into the bowl with the meat, grate in nutmeg to taste. Pour in a glass of wine and a splash of brandy. Add the pink salt if you’re using. Stir through and cover. Refrigerate overnight.


Other
Streaky bacon/caul fat
1 egg
Salt (around 2% by weight, this can be adjusted later)

Set your mincer up with a medium die and pass through the meat mixture. Using your fingers mix through the salt and egg. Take a small portion and wrap in cling film, making it water tight, and poach in some simmering water until cooked, taste and adjust the seasoning as needed, remember that the terrine is served cool so the seasoning will be more muted.


Line the terrine with the bacon (or fat) and pour in the minced mixture. Tap the terrine on the bench to get rid of any air pockets. Fold the bacon over the top of the mixture and place on the lid. Place the terrine in a bain-marie (with hot water) and into an oven set at 150–160°C, cook for about 2.5 hours, or until the internal temperature is about 70°C (65°C should be enough though).


Remove from the bain-marie and let cool, then weigh down a tight fitting lid with a couple of cans, use a stiff piece of cardboard cut to the correct shape and wrap in tin foil, refrigerate overnight.

Serve with pickled onions, cornichons, hot mustard and my walnut flat bread.

Chicken liver pâté

Well it’s the season again, drink, eat and be merry, fortunately I had a little self control this year and managed to not overindulge, well in the food department anyway. It was hard though, christmas day greeted us with two hams, a turkey, a side of beef, mutton and a glut of tasty sides. I'm usually not one to shy away from a tasty piece of ham and had to restrain myself not to eat the lot. I suppose the only good fortune is that I don’t have a sweet tooth as we were bombarded with a barrage of desserts, but I only had eyes for the ham.

I did contribute a little fare to the table, pâté de campagne, chicken liver pâté and a walnut flat bread. The former really an excuse, a good one, to use my christmas present to myself a new terrine, however I’ll get to that later, today is all about pâté.

Chicken liver pâté
500 g butter
1 kg chicken livers (trimmed and cut in half)
250 ml cream
125 ml brandy
5 shallots, diced
A bunch of thyme
Salt and pepper

Take two thirds of the butter (by eye is fine) slice into cubes and place in the fridge. Divide the remaining butter into four, this will be used to cook the livers in three batches and the final lot to soften the shallots.

Melt a portion of butter in a medium-hot frying pan and when the foam subsides add in a third of the livers, cook about two minutes per side, they should be pink in the middle with no signs of blood. Transfer to a bowl. Repeat with the remaining the remaining two thirds of butter and liver.

When the livers are cooked and resting in a bowl add the last lot of butter to the pan and add the shallots, cook until translucent, add the thyme and cook until fragrant. I usually don’t bother stripping the leaves off the branch, rather I just tie them together so I can easily remove once they have given up their flavour. Pull out the thyme bundle, if using, and add the brandy and flambé, when the flames subside add the cream and reduce by about half. Pour on top of the cooked livers.

Transfer the lot to a food processor and blitz, while the machine is running add the cubed butter piece by piece until it is all incorporated. Transfer the purée to a sieve set over a bowl and work it through using the back of a spoon, and to torture your hands further, take the sieved mixture and place in a very fine mouli and work through. It may seem like a little overkill passing it through a sieve and mouli but it’s worth it for the texture.

Taste and season the pâté, take into account that when the pâté cools the seasoning will dull, so it’s best to over season slightly. Transfer to a dish and crack over a little black pepper and cover with some clarified butter. Cover and chill in the fridge.