Daring Cooks: Pâté and Bread

Our hostesses this month, Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie of The Chocolate Bunny, chose delicious pate with freshly baked bread as their June Daring Cook’s challenge! They’ve provided us with 4 different pate recipes to choose from and are allowing us to go wild with our homemade bread choice.

I chose the Chicken Liver Terrine and used all the ingredients in the recipe. It is super delicious and the perfect topping for Peter Reinhart's Pain à l'Ancienne mini baguettes. It's a surprise that I really love it because I hardly cook any kind of liver except for one Filipino dish. I couldn't stop eating it as soon as it has cooled overnight in the refrigerator.

Chicken Liver Terrine
1 tablespoon duck fat, or butter
2 onions, coarsely chopped
11 ounces chicken livers, trimmed
3 tablespoons brandy
3½ ounces smoked bacon, diced
11 ounces boneless pork belly, coarsely ground
7 ounces boneless pork shoulder, coarsely ground
2 shallots, chopped
1 teaspoon quatre-épices (1 teaspoon ground white pepper and ¼ teaspoon each cloves, nutmeg and ginger)
2 eggs
7 ounces heavy cream
2 fresh thyme sprigs, chopped
sea salt and pepper
bacon rashers, optional

• Preheat oven to 400ºF.
  
• Melt the fat or butter in a skillet over low heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, until softened. Add the chicken livers and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, until browned but still slightly pink on the inside.
  
• Put the minced pork belly and shoulder in a food processor, then add the onion-liver mixture and the chopped shallots and pulse until you obtain a homogeneous mixture – make sure not to reduce it to a slurry. Transfer to a bowl, and fold in the chopped bacon, quatre-épices, brandy, cream, eggs, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper, and mix well. Wrap half a tablespoon of the mixture in a plastic film and poach in water for a few minutes. Let cool, taste, and adjust seasoning.
  
• Line a 10 x 5-inch loaf pan with thin bacon rashers. Spoon the mixture into the pan, covering top with the bacon overhang. Cover tightly with aluminum foil.
  
• Prepare a water bath: place the loaf pan in a larger, deep dish. Bring some water to a simmer and carefully pour it in the larger dish. The water should reach approximately halfway up the loaf pan. Put the water bath and the loaf pan in the oven, and bake for 2 hours. Uncover and bake for another 30 minutes. The terrine should be cooked through, and you should be able to slice into it with a knife and leave a mark, but it shouldn’t be too dry.
  
• Refrigerate, as this pâté needs to be served cold. Unmold onto a serving platter, cut into slices, and serve with bread.

The second one I made is seafood. This is not one of the recipes given because I didn't have salmon. I had a half pound of scallops and found a seafood terrine recipe from Michael Ruhlman's CHARCUTERIE. The terrine has scallops, blue crab meat, saffron-infused cream, and chopped chives. The pinch of saffron lends its unique flavor and pale yellow color to this delicious terrine. I made sauce gribiche as Ruhlman suggests in the book and baked Spiraled Wheat Loaf from King Arthur Flour website. Great stuff.

Maryland Crab, Scallop, and Saffron Terrine
adapted from CHARCUTERIE by Michael Ruhlman
8 leeks, green tops only
¾ cup heavy cream
a large pinch of saffron
1 pound sea scallo[s
2 large egg whites
¾ tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 pound Maryland lump crab meat
¾ cup chopped chives

• Freeze all the the blades and bowls before starting.
• Wash the leek greens thoroughly. Cook them for 8 minutes in a large pot of heavily salted water. Drain and chill in ice water, then drain and pat dry. Lay out on plastic wrap.
• In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a boil over high heat; remove from heat. Add saffron and let sit for 15 minutes to infuse the cream, then chill, uncovered, in the refrigerator.
• Preheat the oven to 300°F.
• Combine scallops with the egg whites in a food processor and puree until smooth. While the machine is running, add the saffron cream in a slow, steady stream. Season with the salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Transfer into a bowl and fold in the crab meat and chives. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
  
• Moisten a 1½ quart loaf pan with water and line with plastic wrap, leaving enough overhang on the long sides. Line the mold crosswise with the leeks leaving enough overhang to cover top. Pack the scallop mixture into the pan. Fold the leek greens over the top, followed by the plastic wrap. Cover with aluminum foil. Place the terrine in a high-sided roasting pan and add enough hot water to the pan to come halfway up the side of the loaf pan. Bake until an instant-read thermometer reads 140°F. Remove from the oven, remove the terrine from the water bath and let cool. Refrigerate overnight.

Sauce Gribiche
recipe by David Lebovitz
1 large egg
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 cornichon
8 to 10 small capers; drained, rinsed, and squeezed dry
¼ cup (gently-packed) mixed chopped herbs; flat-leaf parsley, chervil, and/or tarragon
salt and freshly-ground black pepper

• Cook the egg in boiling water for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, drain away the water, and cool the egg by adding ice and cold water to the pot. Once cool, peel the egg then extract the yolk.
  
• In a medium-sized bowl, mash the yolk until smooth with the mustard. Dribble in the olive oil, beating with a fork or wooden spoon while doing so, then adding the vinegar.
  
• Chop the egg white and cornichon separately into fine cubes, the size of the capers, and add them to the sauce. Then add the capers themselves. Stir in the herbs and add salt and pepper. Taste, and season with additional salt, pepper, and vinegar, if necessary. Serve at room temperature.

And I couldn't resist having sweet fruity terrines. I made a mini Caramel Pear Terrine with Kumquat Star Anise Rum, the recipe adapted from here and Sidra Berries Terrine. Both are delicious.

Sidra Berries Terrine
1 cup apple juice
2 packets unflavored gelatin
1 tablespoon sugar, more or less to taste
2½ cups sidra (Spanish sparkling apple cider)
fresh berries

• In a small bowl, soften the gelatin in ¼ cup juice.
  
• Heat the remaining juice to boiling. Remove from heat and stir in the gelatin mixture and sugar. Transfer into a bowl and add the sidra. Stir gently and mix well.
  
• Arrange a layer of berries on the bottom of an 8 x 4-inch loaf pan. Cover the fruits with the gelatin liquid, let set in the freezer for 5 minutes. Continue layering fruits and liquid, letting set in the freezer until the loaf pan is filled to the top. Cover with plastic film and let set completely in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Unmold onto a serving plate and cut into thick slices. Enjoy.
  

Thank you Evelyne and Valerie for choosing pâté and freshly baked bread. I enjoyed doing the challenge.:-)

Mellow Bakers Beer Bread with Roasted Barley

I meant to go mellow this month intending to bake just one bread but I got suckered into baking Beer Bread with Roasted Barley. It's an interesting recipe because it requires roasting malted barley. Malted barley means soaking and sprouting the husked [or unhusked] barley, drying the sprouted grains then grinding to a fine powder. The result is a sweet tasting barley.

I found a small packet of malt flour among the array of flours I have in my pantry (21 different flours so far), but reading the MellowBakers forum I got curioser and curioser and bought a 2-pound bag of peeled barley, cost is $1.99. I sprouted, roasted, and ground a quarter of a cup and used 2 tablespoons for half recipe. BTW, I ate a few roasted grains and indeed they were sweetish.

For the beer, I used Guinness Extra Stout which is dark, malty, and has a caramel flavor. I don't drink beer and I can't stand its smell. I felt a bit ill inhaling it while handling the dough. The dough was easy to knead but after the fold it became a little bit more slack. I was puzzled and wondered if that was even possible, maybe I was just intoxicated with the beer fumes.

I was not expecting to like the bread but surprisingly I did not just like it, I loved it! It is delicious, sweet-tasting, full flavored, and has a caramelly aroma that is almost chocolatey. There's a slight bitterness [IMHO] from the beer which I don't mind, sometimes I like bitter. The flavor of this bread is the perfect vessel for the chicken liver pate I made. I'm glad I decided not to skip baking this bread. It has the potential to become a favorite.

The recipe is here or better yet, get the book, BREAD.

Chicken Faux Gras

Michel Richard's Chicken Faux Gras: absolutely the creamiest thing on earth

Liver has never been a favorite in my house. When I was a teenager my mom used to force pork liver steaks and onions on me and my sisters once every two weeks and the ritual probably made me averse to any kind of liver. As an adult I seldom ate it, maybe once in a blue moon I add liverwurst sparingly when a recipe calls for liver. My taste buds have changed recently because the past year I have started to appreciate it more and more but in small doses adding it to meat paté and a few Filipino pork dishes.

Since I started baking a lot of bread I have been looking for more ways to eat them other than sandwiches. Reading Michel Richard's Chicken Faux Gras from his cookbook HAPPY IN THE KITCHEN, the pate sounds like a very good spread for the breads. The recipe is so rich and Michel describes it in the cookbook as "absolutely the creamiest thing on earth" and he is of course "absolutely" accurate. It is rich and creamy and melts in your mouth delicious. It's perfect not just as appetizer but also for lunch, dinner, and this morning for breakfast too.

Chicken Faux Gras
adapted from HAPPY IN THE KITCHEN by Michel Richard
mousse
1 cup softened unsalted butter
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
½ cup heavy cream
1 pound chicken livers, trimmed
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
½ teaspoon ground black or white pepper

parsley gelée
1 seedless cucumber
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar
2 drops Tabasco sauce
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

• Prepare the Mousse: Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 300ºF.
• Cook onion in 2 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over moderately low heat, covered, for 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and cream and simmer, covered, until onion is tender, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in remaining butter, then return to heat and stir until butter is melted and mixture is combined.
• Purée livers with onion mixture, sea salt, and pepper in a blender, scraping down sides as necessary, until smooth. Force mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a large measuring cup.
• Bring a teakettle full of water to a boil.
• Evenly space ramekins in a 13- by 9-inch roasting pan. Divide liver mixture among ramekins, then cover each ramekin with foil and place roasting pan in oven. Pour enough boiling water into pan to fill pan halfway. Bake until mousse is just set, about 30 minutes.
• Remove foil and transfer ramekins to a rack to cool to room temperature, about 1 hour, then chill mousse, covered, at least 3 hours.
• Prepare gelée once mousse is cold: Chop half of cucumber and reserve remainder for another use. Purée chopped cucumber in a food processor until liquefied. Pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a liquid measuring cup (you should have 1/2 cup cucumber water; if not, chop and purée more cucumber).
• Sprinkle gelatin over ¼ cup cucumber water in a small saucepan and let stand 1 minute to soften. Heat gelatin mixture over low heat until gelatin is melted. Remove from heat and stir in the remaining cucumber water, lemon juice, sugar, Tabasco, and parsley.
• Cool gelée 5 minutes, then spoon about 2 tablespoons over each mousse. Chill until gelée is set, about 1 hour.
• Bring mousse to room temperature, about 30 minutes, before serving.

Food Friday: Tofu-rrific

A friend gave me this recipe which she says she got from her sister's friend's friend. Most probably the recipe is already on somebody's website. This vegan dish is similar to sisig without the pork. It has the perfect balance of saltiness and acidity, is rich and creamy [from the mayonnaise] and mildly spicy [from the green finger chilis]. It is very very very good, it's tofu-rrific. I never thought I'd say this about tofu but yes, this tofu dish is awesome!

Tofu with Mayonnaise
2 firm tofu bricks, diced
water
2 tablespoons light olive oil
2 cups chopped sweet onions
5 pieces green finger chili, sliced
½ cup mayonnaise, more or less to taste
3 tablespoons lemon or calamansi juice
½ cup soy sauce

• Heat 3 cups water in a medium sauce pan and add tofu. Leave for 3 minutes then drain well.
  
• Heat the oil in a wok or large non-stick skillet. Carefully add the drained tofu, stir fry for 2 minutes. Add onions and stir cook for 3 minutes. Add finger chili, mayonnaise, and lemon juice. Cook for another 3 minutes or until onions are soft. Turn heat off and stir in the soy sauce. Serve immediately.