Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Chicken Liver and Mushroom Paté

We love a good banh mi. That mixture of meat, creamy paté, pickled vegetables& fresh herbs on French bread is such a festival of flavors & textures. We tend not to make them at home because they do take a little of a lot of different ingredients but, since we had some leftover roasted pork in the fridge I decided to add them to the menu.
Banh Mi with homemade pate
In order to not buy a whole bunch of things we would only use a little of, we kept the topping for our sandwiches down to just what we felt was most important; mayo, pork, paté pickled carrots, cilantro & jalapenos. Though not traditional, I threw on some chopped scallions too since we had them. The main thing we skipped was the pickled radishes because we didn't want to buy a whole bunch to use just one or two.

I pickled the carrots myself using Emeril's quick pickle recipe. I just used a third of the brine & pickled one carrot. The only problem ingredient was the paté. The grocery store had a few choices but they were pretty expensive & way more paté then we needed. Ok, time to make our own. It was something we'd been wanting to do for awhile anyway.

I chose a very basic chicken liver paté recipe, which just also happened to be from Emeril, because other than the chicken livers I already had all the ingredients (ok, most of the ingredients). Even though it was my first time making paté I went ahead & made a few changes to the recipe, substituting some of the livers with brown mushrooms & green peppercorns with capers. I think both were good substitutes. The mushrooms tempered the liver flavor a little & the capers added a nice tang. At first taste Matt wasn't so sure he thought it was great but after a day or two letting the flavors meld in the fridge he really liked it & ate a whole bunch on bread with some cornichons.

Chicken Liver & Mushroom Paté
(adapted from Emeril Lagasse)
The livers have to soak for 2 hours before using them so plan ahead.

5 oz chicken livers, cleaned
1/2 c milk
4 T cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 c chopped yellow onions
1 t minced garlic
3 oz brown mushrooms, sliced
1 T capers, drained
1 bay leaf
1/2 t chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/4 t salt
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper
2 T brandy

Soak the chicken livers in the milk for 2 hours. Drain well.

In a large skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium-high heat. Add the onions & cook until translucent. Add the garlic & cook another 30 seconds. Stir in the chicken livers, mushrooms, capers, bay leaf, thyme, salt & pepper. Cook until the livers are browned on the outside, about 5 minutes. Add the brandy. Cook until almost all the liquid is gone. The livers should be cooked through. Remove from heat & let cool.

Remove the bay leaf & put the liver mixture into a food processor & puree. The paté will not get completely smooth but have a more rustic texture. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter a little at a time, pulsing with each addition. Put the paté into a bowl or ramekin & cover. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours before serving (We found it was better after a day or two).

Makes about 1 1/2 - 2 cups

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2011 Kathy Lewinski

4 comments:

Tangled Noodle said...

I can't believe we missed trying any of the great banh mi places in the Twin Cities before we left! Your version looks marvelous, especially with this chicken liver mushroom paté. I'll just have to make my own banh mi, too! 8-)

Jenn @leftoverqueen said...

I love a good pate! This looks great!

Lori said...

I am embarrassed to say that I've never had a traditional banh mi. We keep saying we have to seek one out! Thus far, no resources here. The pate sounds great. I may have to make my own sandwich instead!

Alicia Foodycat said...

I am definitely going to have to try this! I really like the sound of the subs in the pate.

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