The pate de campagne recipe I use includes pistachios. It’s always well received.
Mine too. I also usually layer in strips of duck breast or a nice ham to give it an interesting visual and textural element as well
Here is what I am thinking for a recipe (some tweaks to Ruhlman)…
Ingredients
• 2 pounds pork shoulder
• 4 ounces chicken liver
• 4 ounces boneless/skinless chicken thighs
• ½ cup smoked hog jowel
• ½ cup house cured bacon fat
• ½ cup shredded duck leg confit
• ¼ cup finely grated yellow onion
• 2 TBS finely grated garlic
• 1 TBS duck fat
• 1 TBS Benton’s Smokehouse rendered bacon fat
• 2 TBS kosher salt
• 2 TSP freshly ground Telicherry pepper
• 2 TSP Pâté Spice (recipe follows)
• 2 TBS all-purpose flour
• 2 large eggs
• ¼ cup plus 2 TBS Cognac
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 1 cup whole milk
Pâté Spice:
• 1 TSP ground cloves
• 1 TSP ground nutmeg
• 1 TSP ground ginger
• 1 TSP ground coriander
• 2 TSP ground cinnamon
• 1 TSP ground white pepper
Instructions
• Place the chicken livers in a medium bowl and pour in the milk. Allow to sit in the refrigerator for several hours. Thoroughly wash the livers in cool water and pat dry.
• Sweat the onions and garlic over low heat in the duck and bacon fat. When translucent, add ¼ cup Cognac and increase heat to medium. Reduce by half and remove from heat to cool to room temp.
• Freeze all your blades and bowls before gathering and measuring your ingredients.
• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
• Grind the pork shoulder through the large die into a large bowl. Transfer about one-third of the pork to a small bowl, and add the liver, thighs, bacon, jowel, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and pâté spice. Mix with a wooden spoon to combine. Fit the grinder with the small die and grind the meat/seasonings mixture into the bowl of coarsely ground pork. Refrigerate.
• In a small bowl, combine the flour, eggs, 2 TBS Cognac, and cream and stir to blend. Add it to the ground meat and, using the paddle attachment, mix until incorporated and the forcemeat becomes sticky. Fold in the duck confit.
• Line terrine mold with plastic wrap, leaving enough overhand on the two long sides to fold over the top of the terrine when it’s filled (moistening the mold first will help the plastic adhere). Fill the mold with the pâté mixture, packing it down to remove air pockets. Fold the plastic wrap over the top, and cover with the lid or with foil.
• Place the terrine in a high-sided roasting pan and add enough hot water (very hot tap water) to come halfway up the sides of the mold. Put the pan in the oven and bake until the interior of the pâté reaches 160 degrees F.
• Remove from the oven, remove the mold from the water bath, and set a weight of about 2 pounds/1 kilogram on top of the terrine. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until completely chilled, overnight, or for up to 1 week, before serving.
fast and easy pate -
1 lb chicken livers
1 shallot
1/2 C butter
1/4 bu thyme
brandy/cognac/armagnac
saute shallots
saute livers
add herbs
flambe with Cognac / Armagnac / Brandy / whathaveyou
Puree, add butter in increments until desired texture
season with salt
push through a tami to get the non-desirable bits out
form in loaf tin wrapped in plastic
chill for a few hours
I ran across a recipe in a local City-affairs type magazine from a local chef. I normally would not have been tempted to make pate, but it called for some beef heart and I happened to have a huge chunk of beef heart in my freezer left over from making Peruvian beef heart kabobs. This recipe called for only 1/4 lb of beef heart, braised, and then cubed along with 1 1/2 lbs of pork shoulder, three ounces of lardo, fresh sage, parsley, garlic, onion, dijon mustard, capers, tobasco, salt and pepper. I added a strip of pork belly. All meats were from a local artisan farmer. The recipe called for grinding the meats on their own and then hand mixing with the spices but I like to mix it all beforehand and run everything throught the meat grinder together. Ran it all through the Kitchenaid meat grinder with small plate twice which produced a nice compromise between spreadable (not) and course meatloaf. Recipe called for lining the loaf pan with bacon and laying three bay leaves on top before the final fold over, and then baking in a 350 oven for two and a half hours in a water bath, and then weighting it down with a brick overnight. I will try and take a pic tonight. It sure smelled good coming out of the oven. Thing is-I hope it’s good, but not so good as to tempt me to eat much of it.
Bill,
Your recipe looks like it needs more liver to me. Adds richness and texture. Otherwise looks great.
Hillbilly pate;
