Selective Palate

I am a little late on this post. I promised my good friend Kathy along with my father this recipe weeks ago! But to be honest as much as I love to share my recipes I kind of like keeping this 1 to myself. It”s like my secret weapon; if I give it away they will have no reason to invite me over anymore. I kid, sorta.

All three of us love Pâté, M not so much; I get his portion! But its pretty expensive. In fact when you realize what is in it and how easy it is to make it really grates my cheese. I have dreams of making this in big batches and selling it to make my millions, or at least a couple hundred bucks!

So without further ado here is the recipe for 1 of the best creamy pâté ever and the best part is it costs pennies! OK, Kathy you better still invite me over, I do  come with wine!

They wouldn’t wait for me to get my camera! It really is that good.

Recipe: Makes two 1 cup Ramekins.

Pâté:

8 oz chicken or other poultry livers, dark spots removed
1 stick butter
1/2 cup shallots
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 T. cognac ( or other tasty spirit)
1 t. fresh herb minced such as parsley or tarragon or none.
salt and pepper to taste

Aspic:

1/4 cup stock (any good quality will work, I like to make mine with  a veal demi-glace for richness)
1 t. cognac or more to taste (see above)
1 t. sherry or other quality vinegar
1/2 t. gelatin
salt and pepper to taste – sometimes I use rough cracked pepper for texture and taste

Method – Pâté:

Melt 1/2 the  butter over medium heat until just melted, add shallots. Reduce heat and cook until translucent. Add garlic and saute a little longer till fragrant, make sure not brown! Now carefully add the cognac and cook down a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper and add the cream. Simmer for a couple more minutes then add the remaining butter stirring to melt. Take off heat and set aside to cool.

Using your blender puree the raw livers until smooth. Add the shallots and cream mixture and puree on high until everything is completely smooth and pale in color.

Strain mixture through a fine mesh strainer pushing the mixture through with the back of a spoon.

Fill 2 ramekins with the mixture leaving about 1/4 inch room at the top for the aspic.

Transfer (carefully) the ramekins to a deep sided baking dish placed in a preheated 300 degree oven. Cover ramekins tightly with aluminum foil and fill baking dish with boiling water 1/2 way up the side of ramekins. Bake for 30 minutes until pâté is set (like a cheesecake).

Cool to room temperature and transfer to the refrigerator. Once chilled make the aspic.

Method – Aspic:

Combine everything except the gelatin in a saucepan (or microwave) until simmering stir in the gelatin to dissolve. Cool. Once cooled pour on top of the chilled pâté and return to the fridge until the aspic sets up; a couple hours.

Before serving bring to room temperature. Serve with good french bread and wine.

I know it sounds like a lot of work but really you spend more time waiting for everything to cool down than anything else. Plus each ramekin of pâté costs about $1; yup ONE DOLLAR! Compare that to $50/lb in gourmet stores, doesn’t seem like too much work now does it! Also, you get to be creative. Once you have the method down you can switch up the flavors or add textures if you prefer.

By the way I should mention I got inspiration for this recipe from the very lovely Steamy Kitchen; Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

ENJOY!

It doesn’t happen very often but M and I went grocery shopping a few weeks back. Now I am talking about real grocery shopping not picking up a couple things for dinner. While in the produce department we discovered something I had only heard rumors about. “Could it be?” I said. M asked if it was rotten? I turned to him and said I prefer the term “fermented”. So with that I threw 2 heads of Black Garlic in the cart. I could not wait to get home and open up my treasure.

Then the realization came to me that I have no idea what to do with this! So the package sat there for several days while I researched. I wanted to really highlight this strange new ingredient not just throw it in any old dish. I found 2 recipes off the Black Garlic website that really sounded yummy.

First up was Scallops with Black Garlic and Chorizo. I followed the recipe exactly and it was a perfect appetizer. I might have a drizzled a little olive oil on  top to finish it up but other than that no tweaking. This recipe is so versitile. I could switch out any number of ingredients and come up with a great starter. The Black Garlic shined beautifully. It had such a sweet, mellow taste that complimented the scallops. I could taste garlic but with none of the bite.

Next up was the Mushroom and Black Garlic Risotto. Again I followed this recipe fairly closely; why fix something that is not broken. I did not have vegetable stock on hand, I used chicken stock instead, so it was not vegetarian but neither am I! Again the earthiness of both the mushrooms and Black Garlic worked extremely well together.  Also, I have never added marcarpone cheese to any risotto but HO BOY I highly recomend it! In fact I had never used marscarpone for anything savory but I have seen the light; this stuff is so good! You could put it on a shoe and it would make it taste creamy and decadent.

So the verdict; I really enjoyed it. It was a nice change from your traditional garlic. It was sweet, savory, creamy (yes creamy), earthy and just plain nice. M on the other hand had no reaction. He said it’s fine nothing special. He leans toward the bitter, he loves it when I burn the garlic and black garlic has long lost any bitterness its fresh cooked (burned) counter part has.

So if you happen upon it at your local grocery store I highly recommend trying it if for no other reason than to say you have. If you are really interested I believe the Black Garlic website actually sells it.