Chicken Liver Pate with Port and Whipped Cream

INGREDIENTS:

= 1 lb. (500 g) fresh organic chicken livers

= 3 small shallots – chopped

= 1 cup celery root – grated

= ½ lb. (250 g) unsalted butter – softened

= ½ cup chicken broth (preferably homemade)

= 2 garlic cloves – sliced

= 2-3 table spoons olive oil

= 1½ teaspoons salt

= ¾ teaspoon white ground pepper

= 1 tablespoon fresh Thyme leaves – chopped

= ¼ teaspoon Allspice

= ½ cup full-fat cream

= 1 1/3 cup Port

= ½ cup fresh or frozen cherries, or cranberries, or any other red berries

= 1 bag of gelatin

= 2-3 tablespoon sugar

= ½ teaspoon ground Nutmeg

COOKING:

1. First, I cook a “seal” for my pate. The pate will keep longer in the fridge if I pour some butter or jelly on the top of it. Besides, the pate looks much more festive and attractive with a colorful “seal”.

In a small sauce pan pour 1 cup of port, put some cherries or any other red berries, 2-3 tablespoons sugar and bring it to the boil over slow heat and cook for about 10 minutes. Then remove from the heat and carefully mix in gelatin. Put the pan back on the stove and keep stirring until gelatin is completely dissolved. Remove from the heat and let it stand for 3-4 minute, then strain the mixture through a damp cheesecloth. Leave it to cool.

2. Wash the chicken livers and cut all fat and veins if any.

3. In a large frying pan (not aluminum!) heat up olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter. Sauté onions, celery root and garlic until golden – about 7-9 minutes.

4. Add the livers in the frying pan, along with ½ teaspoon salt, Thyme, Allspice, 1/3 cup port, and chicken stock – liquid should just cover the livers. Bring it to the boil, reduce the heat to low, cover the frying pan and cook for 10 minutes on low heat. The liquid should just simmer not bubble. The livers should be almost cooked in 10 minutes with slight pink color inside. Turn off the heat and leave the livers in hot liquid for another 10 minutes.

Then strain through a fine sieve, and keep the broth.

5. Blend it in batches: each batch should consist of liver mixture, softened butter, a pinch of salt, white pepper, and Nutmeg – blend all together until smooth and silky. If your mixture is too dry, add 2-3 tablespoons of the reserved broth. Once the first batch has been blended place it in a bowl. Then continue blending the rest of livers, butter and spices in the same way as the first batch.

Once all batches have been blended and moved to the bowl mix it very well with a wooded or silicon spatula, cover and put the bowl in the fridge for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes take the bowl out of the fridge and mix the pate once more, cover the bowl and put it back to the fridge for another 15 minutes.

6. While the pate is cooling in the fridge for the second time, whip the cream until it is very thick. Take the pate out of the fridge and gently mix the whipped cream into the cold pate and put the bowl back in the fridge.

7. Once the pate and jelly has cooled completely fill some small glass jars or thick dessert glasses with pate for ¾, leaving some space for the “seal”. When filling up the jars and glasses make sure you don’t leave any air bubbles, otherwise jelly will go down into these air pockets and you won’t have a neat line between the pate and the “seal”.

Pour the jelly on the top of the pate and put the full jars and glasses in the fridge.

Serve with thin baguette slices or white croutons.