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

Beef Brisket with Matzo Balls

On a wave of Jewish cooking, let's cook beef brisket! And what can be better side to our brisket than matzo balls, tenderly comforting, in a flavorful, rich brisket sauce. Here is "hit, no miss" recipe for all these goodness.

Blog's Category: Holidays, International, Jewish

In a Few Words ...

- Beef Brisket is a Jewish cuisine staple. The must at many holiday celebrations, especially on Passover. Don't be intimidated by the size and seriousness of this dish - it's actually simple and easy to make a good brisket, it just takes time, about 6 hours, to sweat and get great in your oven, so start in a morning ;)

- The perfect side to our brisket, matzo balls, can be prepared and cooked in advance. Then, they can be kept in a shallow container, in a little or even no broth, covered, in a fridge for up to two days. Don't worry they won't stick together. Before serving, warm them up in a microwave and serve on a same plate as your beef brisket, drizzled with a brisket sauce from a pan. Recipe for a best matzo balls (IMHO) is here: Matzo Balls recipe. 

Beef Brisket

• about 3-pound beef brisket
• 1 tbs olive oil (or other oil) for frying
• 2 large onions
• 10 garlic cloves, minced or grated
• 2 tbs tomato paste
• 2 tbs sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 2 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 cups of water

- Preheat an oven to 280F.

- Cut off any access of fat from brisket, but make sure to leave layer of about 1/3" of fat on.

- Heat large skillet, add oil and sear your beef brisket on both sides until golden brown.

- Place brisket in an oven-proof pan, fatty side up. Don't cover, set aside.

- Add sliced onion to the same skillet and cook until soft. Add garlic, cook on a medium heat for about one minute, then add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring, on a low heat, for about 5 minutes.

- Pour sauce over brisket, cover pot with a lid (or cover tightly with a foil) and cook at 280F for about 5 hours.

- Turn heat to 370F, remove the lid, and cook for about 30 minutes until caramelized on top. Watch carefully not to burn, in your oven it may take faster :)

- When done, remove from the oven, cover with a lid and let it stand for about 20 minutes before slicing and serving. Don't forget to pour plenty of that sauce over sliced beef and matzo balls. Enjoy!



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In Pictures

It looks small.. In fact it was a large-ish piece on brisket inside of a 12" skillet :)

This is brisket right after 5-hour cooking, uncovered, before final 30-minute caramelizing.

..and after caramelizing.. Done.

Turn on your computer's "smell" function.. It smells awesome. Also color of sauce is great too.