Pork Liver Pâté
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Makes about 20 oz of pâté
Ingredients: 1 ½ LB Stryker Farm pork liver (about half a liver) milk 4 TBSP butter 2 medium onions, thinly sliced 1 TSP sea salt 4 garlic cloves, minced 1/4 cup port or brandy 1/2 cup heavy cream 1 TSP black pepper |
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Pâté is a wonderful use of liver because it transforms the liver into something else entirely, something delicious and even unrecognizable from it’s original form. Half of a pig liver will render about 5 small 4 oz mason jars of pâté which you can refrigerate or freeze and pull out for parties or hostess gifts.
Instructions:
Serve the pâté chilled and spread on crackers. Thinly sliced shallots are a tasty topping.
Instructions:
- The pig liver is quite large, and unless you want to make an obscene amount of pâté, which you certainly could, you’ll want to cut it in half.
- Remove any connective tissue, the white portions. All that should remain is the richly colored organ tissue. Cut into half, or 1 ½ lbs worth. Reserve the other half for later. Cut the liver into 1 inch cubes. Place it in a bowl, cover with milk and refrigerate for at least an hour.
- Meanwhile start to caramelize the onions. This might take more than an hour anyway. Add the butter, onions and pinch of salt to a large pan. Take heed of the word “caramelize”, not saute. Cook them on a low heat, slowly. This truly transforms the onions and draws out the natural sugars. Stir them every so often so they brown, but don’t burn.
- When the onions are a rich caramel color and have almost disintegrated, add the minced garlic. Let the garlic soften a bit.
- Pull out the liver, drain the cubes from the milk and add to the onions.
- Cook the liver until the cubes are firm to the touch and the juices runs clear. Deglaze the pan with a slosh of port or brandy. Transfer the contents of the pan to a food processor (you might have to do this in batches).
- Add the port or brandy, my grandmother always preferred port, and the cream. Whip everything to a super fine mousse.
- For a fabulously creamy and smooth pâté, you’ll need to do one final and seemingly superfluous step. Scoop out the blended mousse into a fine mesh sieve set over a bowl. Using a flexible spatula, push the mousse through the sieve. At first it seems like nothing is happening, but then you notice a strange play-dough like phenomenon happening under the sieve. Eventually you’ll push through all the pâté and have separated any larger bits.
- Use a butter knife to scrape off the pâté into your jars. I used five 4 oz mason jars.
Serve the pâté chilled and spread on crackers. Thinly sliced shallots are a tasty topping.
