I do love pate, but it appeals to my stingy side too. As Recipe Rifle points out, this is why restaurants like it so much - it's cheap as chips to produce, and they can put it on the menu with toast as a nice starter.
I must admit I've never cooked livers before. It takes a lot to make me squeamish - I have no problem handling raw meat - but the livers were a bit unappealing sitting in their packaging. Wash them off and chop them a little to allow them to cook a bit quicker.
Cook gently over a low heat with chopped pancetta (or streaky bacon, pancetta is expensive but delicious) until the livers are cooked through. Apparently you're aiming for a bit of pink still in the middle, but I decided to err on the side of caution and cook them through.
Let's be honest - it still doesn't look too appealing, does it? It didn't smell too great either. I promise it's worth it.
When the livers are cooked through, put them in a bowl and leave to one side. In the same pan, cook an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic over a low heat. It should be shallots, really, but they didn't have any in the shop. Let them sweat until soft. Add roughly chopped mushrooms towards the end, just to give them a little colour, then add them to the bowl of livers and bacon.
Finally, deglaze the pan with some brandy. "Deglazing" is a posh cheffy term for cleaning the bottom of the pan by pouring in something alcoholic and scraping around the bottom of the pan to get all the tasty burnt bits off the bottom. Pour the resulting tasty brandy into the bowl and mix it all up, along with salt, pepper, a sprinkle of sage and a spoonful of mustard. Or whatever flavours you like really!
Of course, if you had a large enough food processor you could just put everything straight in there, but I only have a tiny one (pipe down at the back) so I had to mix everything up together then blitz it in batches.
Let's be honest. It still doesn't look appealing, does it?
I put the whole lot into an airtight container because it was destined to be my lunch this week, but if you want to store it for longer Recipe Rifle recommends storing in separate small ramekins or containers with a seal of melted butter over the top.
Taste verdict
I've been having it for my lunches at work all week, served on Ryvita with cornichons. I'm chuffed to bits - I was really worried that this was going to be horrible, but it just tastes like pate! I'd probably be a bit more generous with the herbs next time: this is just nice but bland pate. Very nice too.
Financial verdict
250g chicken livers - 52p
2 slices pancetta - £1.85 (or streaky bacon or leave it out altogether - I just happened to have this in, from the previous day's mussels)
An onion - 20p
Couple of mushrooms - 20p
Clove of garlic, splash of brandy or white wine (optional) - pennies, from store.
£2.77 in total - I'd be happy to pay that for a large pack of pate from the supermarket. I had 9 Ryvitas with this on in total over three lunches, making it 31p per portion. I ended up throwing about half of it away though - no-one else at work wanted any. If I'd stored it in separate small jars, it would have gone much further. You can leave out the bacon if you want to, making it ludicrously cheap.
The skinny
Fry chicken livers along with chopped up streaky bacon or pancetta. When cooked through, put into a food processor.
In the same pan, cook an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic (or some shallots) over a low heat. Add some chopped mushrooms towards the end of cooking time. When soft, put them in the food processor with the meat.
Deglaze the pan with brandy or wine and add the liquid to the food processor.
Whizz it all up until it looks like pate.
Store in the fridge in an airtight container and use within three days. For a longer life, seal the top by pouring melted butter over it.
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