Meat Paste Of The Gods

Believe it or not, I'd never made pate before this instant. So, reading that duck livers give a satisfactory second to real ram-it-down-the-gullet foie gras, I set out to procure some within the confines of my E8 postcode.
As if - I had to make do with rather dull and disappointing chicken livers. Shame shame. Still, with a substandard bottle of tawny port that I was testing from Lidl and wanted rid of, I decided I could actually make this work to my advantage. Wanting to pimp things up ever so slightly, I then made another foolish purchase, this time at the other end of the spectrum, picking up a bottle of Hennessy Cognac from the local offie. I'm not really a fan so buying a bottle of finest cognac for cooking brandy was a quite an unnecessary extravagance. But I guess that's the whole point of them. Or at least half.

Chicken Liver & Port Pate
I will argue that you don't really need to measure anything with this. You should be working to common sense and consistencies instead. You will add more booze, straight from the bottle, once you start whizzing things up in the food processor. The more liquid you add, the more liquid it gets. Simple as that. It's remarkable how much booze you can actually add whilst still retaining a respectable pate-like texture.

• nice big bag of chicken livers. Damn they're cheap. I favour my local Turkish Food Centre for all my offal requirements (chicken heart yakitori will get whirled out a few times over the course of the summer)
• a few shallots
• garlic
• goose fat
• butter
• port
• brandy

1. prep the livers by trimming off any excess fat and poking out those pesty gall bladders or clotted blood, then rinse. Fun stuff.
   
2. leave the livers marinate in the port, enough to cover, for an hour or two. Who knows how long you could leave them before disintegrating.
3. sauté your shallots and garlic briefly in a pan with a good dollop of goose fat and heavy round of butter. You really do need the fat in this recipe.
4. add the port from the chicken livers into the pan but keep the livers themselves back for the moment. Cook this mixture down for 3 -5 minutes. This will concentrate and intensify the port you're going to add but also, unfortunately, burn off the alcohol.
5. transfer all the contents of the pan to your food processor
6. now for the livers themselves. Add more fat and butter to the pan and cook them on a medium heat. You want to brown the outsides but still keep them slightly pink inside. You will cry yourself to sleep if you over do them, really you will.
7. transfer these to the food processor also, flick the switch and see what happens.
8. as I've said, it's all about the consistency. You'll undoubtedly be wanting to add a hefty slug of brandy at this point, and I'm sure you can get away with more port.
9. season with salt and pepper also. As with the liquor, your mixture can suck up a surprising / alarming amount of these also.
10. get your finger in there (food processor off) and taste. Keep on adding whizzing, adding, whizzing until you've achieved a satisfactory flavour but reasonable consistency. Remember that it will firm up slightly upon refrigerating.
    
11. if you're going to be keeping this for longer than 2 or so days, I'd advise, once you've transferred to a suitable container, to cover with a mixture of clarified butter and goose fat.