Best Pâté

This makes almost a litre of pâté.

In bowl place -

▶400-500gm chicken or duck livers
▶milk to cover
▶pinch salt

Leave for 1 hour, then drain on paper towels.

Heat frypan on medium heat then add -

▶125gm salted butter
▶livers
▶1 clove garlic, chopped
▶3 large (golf-ball size) French shallots, peeled and chopped
▶leaves from 6 sprigs fresh thyme
▶ground black pepper
▶pinch salt

Gently sauté until livers have just lost their redness on the outside, but still pink inside. This should take about 10 minutes. Place all the mixture into a blender.

To the liver mixture, add and blend to a smooth paste -

▶125gm salted butter, extra
▶125ml (1/2 cup) cream
▶3 tbsp Madeira, Muscat or Marsala wine
▶3 tbsp Port (tawny) wine (or sweet sherry)
▶2 tbsp brandy

Season with extra salt and black pepper if required.

Pour into individual pots or ramekins. Chill.

To serve, place pot of pâté on a platter, with some chutney, pickled cornichons and thin toast trangles.

WELCOME!

I had been thinking about starting a website for so long that it took a stormy winter's day to finally relax (a bit!) and sort out what I was going to do with the thousands of recipes I have collected over decades.

Having checked out the interest in blog spots, this is how I have chosen to share my favourite, delicious, tried and (some) modified recipes that have passed the tests of both time and palate. As most of my recipes have been written down in "longhand" on cooking cards,in exercise books and even on paper serviettes, their origins have been lost.

So my culinary inspirations can be attributed to others who shared their recipes and to them I owe gratitude.