I love paté. All sorts of patés. It is another one of the goodies I used to enjoy in France and now miss a lot. True, you can find paté here too but there is not the same variety that you find in France. One of my favourite lunch items in Paris is definitely a warm baguette and a good slice of paté or terrine de canard bought from a stall at one of the beautiful markets in the city! So, when I saw some duck liver at a specialty shop in Leichhardt I bought it and set out on a mission to replicate this lunch in my Aussie home! I also made some of my favourite onion jam to go with it and ate it all with some homemade baguette!
Ingredients (for 4 people)
For the paté:
300 grms of duck liver
1 bay leaf
3 sage leaves
3/4 glass of cognac
180 gms of butter + 20 gms for cooking the livers
For the onion jam:
350 gr onions
1 tsp butter
1 bay leaf
6 tbsp sugar
1 pinch of salt
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
For the cognac jelly:
¼ glass cognac
1/2 gelatine sheet
Wash the duck liver and leave it in water for at least 30 minutes. This will make it less bitter. Put it in a sauce pan with the bay leaf, sage and 20 gms of butter. Let it cook on a medium/high flame and turn it over a couple of times.
Then add the cognac and let the alcohol evaporate. The liver has to remain slightly pink on the inside. When the liver is ready, let it cool down a little.
Then put it in a mixer and blend it while adding the remaining butter.
Put the pate’ in a ramekin or a serving bowl and keep aside.
Prepare the cognac jelly. Put the gelatine sheet in cold water to soften. In the meantime, heat the cognac (do not make it boil) and then drain the soft gelatine sheet and add it to the warm cognac. Stir well to dissolve it and pour over the pate’. Refrigerate to set.
Now you can prepare the onion jam. Slice the onion and put it in a sauce pan with the bay leaf and butter and let it cook covered on a very low flame until translucent.
Then add the sugar, salt and vinegar and let it cook until golden and caramelised.
Set aside to cool down.
Serve the paté on toast or on a slice of homemade baguette with a teaspoon of onion jam on the top.
Pate’ is one of my favorite treats! I do it with chicken livers and almost no butter, but my BF doesn’t eat it so I only make it rarely or I wouldn’t fit in my jeans…
I am slowly catching up with all I missed while I was away. Love all the new things you have been doing ( I have been thinking of joining the secret recipe club too) and love this recipe. Once again, you have made something one normally would not think of making in one’s kitchen.
I have recently honed an affection for pate. Yours looks amazingly good. Great job 🙂
Duck livers are really very very delicious! My family loves it esp my dad and hubby! 😀
Unique onion jam you made! I should try these out! 😉
Homemade liver pate! I’m so impressed! I’m so lazy to think about making pate, but you did it so easily that I should give it a try. It must go well with the homemade bread. Nice!!
That onion jam looks wonderful… I’m imagining all sorts of uses for it!
Manu, wow! The pate! The onion jam! Even the baguette! Your family must think they live in a 5-star restaurant!
It looks delicious! I never tried making my own pate but after seeing this I think it’s time 🙂 Thanks for sharing!!!
Wait what?! You make your own paté? Love it! Love this recipe and it is now officially bookmarked!
I think the sweet onion jam is a wonderful complement for the pate and to top it off with homemade baguettes too! Beautiful!
The only liver i ever ate or like to eat at times is that of goat. This is a totally diff kind of dish and looks nice !
Awesome post Manu! I love paté but I’m not sure I have the guts to make it myself. I’m super impressed and that onion jam sounds just perfect.
This recipe and your photos are beautiful! I love pate on bread so much. Whenever my boyfriend and I go out to our favorite French restaurant, this is what we always get as an appetizer! Your bread looks fantastic too… this recipe is a keeper!
Manu, I love lover pate, but never had the courage to make…yours look fabulous, creamy and so tasty….perfect paired with homemade baguette.
Hope you are having a wonderful week 🙂
I thought that make Pate should be a very hard work, but it looks very easy, I have to try it, is spectacular for a dip.
Plus…the baguette…excellent…!!!
Onion jam!!! Wow it sounds intriguing. the duck pate sounds really delicious 🙂
Manu, how do you come up with such interesting surprise everytime?! Really loved this…I had always wondered how a liver pate is made. And onion jam, well, that’s something new to me!!
I love paté de fois gras, too.. but I never thought about making my own patè! Now you give me a wonderful idea. I hope to find duck liver, though!
Wow you make duck pate! I just tried some for the first time a couple of weeks ago. And you are eating it with your baguettes? What a feast!
I have to say that you have introduced me to something new here. You always do such a fantastic job of presenting and talking about your food! I have had chicken livers (fried of course, I’m from the Midwest!) but never duck liver. I would love to give it a whirl!
I haven’t made like this looks like a lovely spread
following you on twitter 🙂
Thanks! Followed you back! 🙂
So what exactly did you use Manu, duck or chicken liver? Your ingredients list said duck liver, but your instructions said chicken liver. I just want to make sure because I have some chicken liver in the freezer, and I have all the other ingredients so I want to try making your paté. I have never tasted duck liver so I don’t know if there’s a difference in taste 🙂
Ohhh Tina! Thank you so much for pointing that out! I usually make this with chicken liver (that’s why I got confused and wrote chicken liver in the instructions!) but this time around I used duck liver. You can really make it with any of the 2, so you can go ahead and try it with chicken liver. The difference is not much… keep the liver in water for about 1 hour if you use chicken liver as I find that it can be slightly more bitter… like this it will be fine to make pate’! 🙂
Thanks for the reply, Manu! I’ll be trying your recipe! :-*
Love it Manu, onion jam is making me drool…..
oh.my.god. You have effectively transported me back to Paris. *sigh*…I WILL be making this. Soon! And blowing the minds (and palates!) of everyone who tastes it. It looks divine! thank you for sharing this awesome recipe!!!
I am so glad you liked the recipe Cristy! Let me know how you go when you make them and remember, if you want them to also “look” more like baguettes, make them very thin as they will double in size!!! 🙂 I will surely make them again!
..YOU are absolutely incredible…
…not, to overlay your special cooking prowess…
…but, to try this, on another avenue of beauty…
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_barber_s_surprising_foie_gras_parable.html
and, this…by the same chef/guy…good fun…
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_barber_how_i_fell_in_love_with_a_fish.html
all the best,
Wes
Homemade pate AND homemade bread???? You amaze me…what a fabulous treat!