Chicken Liver Pate

Silky smooth and amazingly delicious, this chicken liver pate-mousse is addictive. Garnished with pistachio nuts and served with simple toasts, it is destined to become a hit at your next party.

Blog's Category: Chicken, Finger Food, Holidays, Hors D'oeuvre, International, My Staple Food, Ukrainian, Jewish

I've made a lot of different types of liver pate before - it is very popular dish in my native country, Ukraine. I think this recipe is the best of all. It uses chicken liver. Because of a fine texture of chicken liver, it is the best type of liver for pate IMHO. Try this recipe, if you like liver in general, I'm sure this recipe will become your favorite.  

Chicken Liver Pate-Mousse

• 1 lb chicken livers
• 1 stick + 2 tbsp + 1 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup dry Marsala wine (or other white dry white)
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 2 tbsp thyme leaves
• 1/2 cup chicken stock (made of bouillon cubes is fine)
• 1 tbsp chopped pistachio nuts

- Cook onion in 2 tbsp butter in a large skillet on a medium hit until onion soft and translucent. Add chicken livers, salt and pepper and cook it for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

- Add Marsala to chicken livers. Cook for 2 minutes. 

- Add chicken broth, parsley and thyme to livers. Cook, turning livers, for about 5 more minutes until they cooked through. 

- Remove skillet from hit and let it cool down for about 10 minutes. 

- Transfer livers with all juices to kitchen processor and blend until smooth, for about  1 minute (it depends on your machine). Then add stick of soft butter, cut in pieces, while continue to blend, until it smooth and silky. Taste, add salt and pepper if needed.

- Transfer pate in a glass wide-mouth jar. Melt 1 tbsp butter in microwave and pour on top of pate to cover it completely. Sprinkle pistachios on top. Cover with lid. 

- Keep in a fridge. It can hold in a fridge for up to 10 days.

- Enjoy!


Notes:

- Sure you can substitute Marsala with other wine, but Marsala would be ideal, it has that great unique flavor.

- You can make your pate chunky by reserving couple pieces of cooked liver and adding them, chopped, into mousse after it's done, right before transferring it to a jar.



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IN PICTURES

I will post pictures from a cooking process after I will be cooking this pate next time ;)

Passover Matzo Apple Cake

It's true Passover cake, that you will want to bake over and over again. 

Blog's Category: Cakes, Dessert, Holidays, International, Jewish

This delicious cake caters to all requirements for Passover dessert - it has no flour or any kind of leavening such as soda, baking powder or yeasts. It made of simple batter based on matzo and eggs and has a lot of apples.  

Passover Matzo Apple Cake

For a small 9"x 9" cake:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/3 tsp cinnamon powder
• 3-4 drops of almond extract (optional, but highly recommended)
• 1 tsp butter (or olive oil, for greasing pan, skip it if using silicon pan)
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• !/3 cup flavorless olive oil
• 3/4 cup matzo cake flour (I made my own by processing 2 matzos into very fine meal)
• 5 medium apples, quartered, cored, peeled and sliced into 5mm slices
• 1/3 cup dry cranberries 

- Preheat oven to 350F.

- In a small bowl, combine together first 4 ingredients - brown sugar, walnuts, cinnamon and almond extract. Set aside.

- Take baking pan, sized about 9" x 9". If using ceramic or glass pan, grease it with soft butter or olive oil. If using silicon pan, no need for greasing, just place silicon pan onto metal baking sheet to have it ready :)

- Using electric mixer, beat 3 eggs until light and fluffy. Then, with mixer running, gradually add sugar and then, in a thin stream, gradually, add olive oil. 

- Using spatula, fold in the matzo flour into the eggs mixture to get pancake-consistency batter.

- Pour half of batter in a baking dish. Sprinkle it over with half of sugar/walnut mix. Then pile all your apples. Sprinkle apples with dry cranberries, then pour remaining batter and finish with remaining sugar/walnut mix on top.

- Bake in an oven at 350F for 75 minutes. 

- Enjoy!


Notes:

- Cranberries can be replaces with raising or some other chopped dry fruits such as dates, figs, apricots, etc.

- It's rather small cake, barely enough for 10 people. You can easily double the amount to feed a crowd :)

- Skip an almond extract if you don't have it. I am not a fan of adding extracts to food, but I'm a huge fan of, particularly, almond extract. It gives a beautiful aroma to your dessert, especially those with cherry, apples or raspberries. Just one word of caution - it is very, very strong, do not overdo it, just 3 -4 drops are enough for this small cake.



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IN PICTURES