Chicken Liver Paté With Port Wine And Pistachios

Total Time: 30 mins Preparation Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• 100 ml dry wine (just under 1/2 cup)
• 100 ml brandy (or cognac or whisky, just under 1/2 cup)
• 100 ml port wine, good quality (just under 1/2 cup)
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled, crushed, chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh thyme (i used a handful of sprigs, or use 1 tbsp dried)
• 500 g chicken livers (just over 1 lb, about 1 lb 2 oz)
• 4 -6 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (or more, to taste)
• 1 teaspoon pepper, black, coarse
• 100 g pistachio nuts (this is 3 1/2 oz. use any other nut specified)

Recipe

• 1 put the wine, brandy and half the port (50 ml) in a small pot with the onion, garlic and thyme. this will be about 1 cup liquid.
• 2 simmer until reduced to 1/3 cup or just over. (it can be hard to judge this, especially with the onion bits in it. just tilt the pot, and take a guess!).
• 3 during that time, melt the butter -- be generous; the usual cream is not added to this recipe. you need enough butter so you have butter left in the pan when the livers are done.
• 4 fry the cleaned chicken livers over fairly high heat in the butter, until they are just pink on the inside. do not overcook -- cut a few open to see degree of done-ness. this will take about 10 minutes, and stir often.
• 5 put the chicken livers in a processor with all of the butter left in the pan, and then add the boiled-down liquor. if you used thyme sprigs like i did, you'll need to pick out the sprigs first.
• 6 add the salt and pepper.
• 7 whizz the livers. at this stage you'll need the extra port. chuck it in, and whizz until you have a quite soft spread, too soft to use at this stage. (it will firm up in the fridge).
• 8 and this is where i am not sure of how much port i used extra! the 50 ml should be enough to make the liver spread reach an almost runny consistency, but if not, add more. taste -- i used flaky sea salt and have no idea how much was needed.
• 9 when the liver spread is velvety smooth, scrape out into a bowl, and fork in the nuts. cover, cool, and then leave in fridge to firm up.
• 10 the spread develops great flavour over the next day. can be kept and used for up to a week.