This creamy chicken liver and wild mushroom pate is brilliant served on crusty homemade ciabatta (see website for recipe). If you don’t have any frozen wild mushrooms, chopped button mushrooms ‘beefed’ up with dried porcini are a good substitute . . .
450g Chicken livers (two tubs)
225g Frozen wild mushrooms (chanterelles, hedgehogs or horn of plenty are best)
250g Unsalted butter
1 Small onion
2 Cloves garlic
100ml Calvados
1 tspn Mace
10 Sage leaves
3 – 4 Sprigs of thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Slowly melt half the butter in a saucepan and then carefully pour off the clear yellow clarified butter and discard the milky residue. Meanwhile finely chop the onion and garlic and fry until softened and translucent. Add the rest of the butter, mushrooms, spices, herbs and chicken livers. Fry for a few minutes until the livers have just turned brown, but there’s still a hint of pink. Pour in the calvados and when it begins to bubble, amuse the children by waving a match in its direction to burn off the alcohol. Then tip everything into a food processor and pulverise until smooth. Spoon the mixture into small pots (ramekins are ideal), place a sage leaf on top of each and pour over a thin layer of the clarified butter. When cool leave to set in the fridge where it will keep for up to a fortnight.
