Silky texture, rich flavor, simplicity and availability of ingredients are what make pates so popular. Beef liver is one of those superfoods that you should regularly include in your diet. It is rich in iron, zinc, selenium and choline, vitamins A, D, B vitamins. Beef liver pate is not only an appetizing, but also a healthy product.
How to make beef liver pate
According to the method of preparation, pates are divided into baked and cooked in a way more familiar to many Eastern Europeans - from the finished offal, ground into a smooth paste. Baked pates tend to have less fat, but their texture is much rougher. The consistency of ordinary pates from boiled or fried liver depends on the choice of the hostess, it is her who decides how much oil she is ready to add to the dish.
To diversify the taste, crushed nuts - walnuts or pistachios, dried cranberries, dried apricots, prunes, mushrooms, bacon, onions and garlic are put into the beef liver pate. It goes well with the taste of beef liver, green peppercorns, hot red pepper. The traditional spice set for pâté is salt, black pepper, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, thyme and parsley. To enhance the taste, cognac, rum, Madeira, port are added to the pate. Some housewives like to put boiled eggs in the pate.
How to serve liver plow
There are several ways to serve liver pate. In the restaurant, pates are most often served in special pots or tins, along with chutney or jam and pickled vegetables. Marmalade from cranberries, raspberries, lingonberries, apricots and plums, caramelized onions is suitable for pâtés. Whole grain mustard sets off the taste of beef liver pate. Crunchy fresh bread, warm brioche rolls perfectly emphasize the texture of the pate.
For a buffet table, the pate is placed in a shortcrust pastry basket or filled with profiteroles. You can decorate such an appetizer with crushed green or red pepper, spicy green leaves, and slices of bright sweet pepper. You can also make canapés with pate. For a tiny sandwich, you can take a toast, a cracker, a slice of cucumber. Filled with pate and cherry tomatoes, cucumber casks, halves of boiled quail or chicken eggs. Another way to eat pâté is to spread it over warm baked potatoes.
It is very important to know the correct serving temperature for the pate. It cannot be served directly from the refrigerator, but it must be allowed to stand for 10 minutes at room temperature. The fact is that pate is a rather fatty appetizer, so it needs to warm up to reveal its aroma and taste. The pate that has undergone the correct heat treatment can spend up to an hour and a half “in the fresh air,” then it will start to deteriorate. First of all, the surface of the dish will be wrapped, and then the turn of the bacterial feast will come.
Step-by-step recipe for beef liver pate
This is a simple and winning recipe. Even completely inexperienced housewives will be able to cook pate using it. You will need:
- 500 g beef liver;
- 200 g of ground beef;
- 2 large onions;
- 6-8 cloves of garlic;
- 2-3 bay leaves;
- 1 tbsp. a spoonful of oregano leaves;
- a pinch of nutmeg;
- finely ground salt;
- 50 g unsalted butter;
- 1/2 cup dry red wine.
Rinse the liver under running water, pat dry with a paper kitchen towel, remove the film and cut the ducts. Cut the liver into small pieces. Chop the onions into small cubes.
In a wide saucepan, melt 10-15 grams of butter and sauté the onion until transparent. Add liver and minced meat, add bay leaf, oregano, season with nutmeg and salt, pour in wine and simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until minced meat and liver are cooked. The finished liver should be slightly pink on the cut, and clear juice should stand out from it.
Using a slotted spoon, remove the onion, meat and offal, put in a blender bowl. Evaporate the remaining liquid in the pan to half and add to the bowl. Suck lightly and add butter. Grind to the desired texture. Transfer to a lidded dish and refrigerate for 3-5 days. If you pour melted fat on the surface of the pate, let it harden and do not print, then the shelf life can be extended to two weeks.
Homemade liver pate with balsamic vinegar
This is a classic recipe for beef liver pate with a strong aroma and rich taste. To prepare it, you will need:
- 1 kg of beef liver;
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
- 2 tbsp. spoons of pork fat;
- 1 large onion head;
- 6 cloves of garlic;
- 1 teaspoon of finely ground salt;
- 2 sprigs of oregano;
- 1/2 cup olive oil
Cut the liver into small slices ½ -1 centimeter thick, put in a bowl and cover with balsamic vinegar, refrigerate and leave for 3-4 hours or overnight. Remove the pickled liver from the vinegar, rinse quickly and pat dry with kitchen paper.
Melt one tablespoon of fat in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Chop the onion into half rings and fry it, stirring occasionally, for 5-10 minutes. Reduce heat to low and cook for about 45 more minutes, until onions are caramelized. Add chopped garlic and simmer for another 2-3 minutes.
Pour in the vinegar remaining after marinating the liver. Cook until the liquid is almost completely evaporated. Use a slotted spoon to remove the onion and set aside. In the same frying pan, melt another spoonful of fat and fry the liver in portions. Cook each serving for about 3-5 minutes.
In a blender bowl, add the caramelized onions, sautéed liver, salt and thyme. Begin grinding by gradually adding olive oil. Store the finished pate in the refrigerator.
Beef liver pate with cream
The flavor of this pate is especially good because of the heavy whipping cream. You will need:
- 500 g beef liver;
- 1 tbsp. a spoonful of cornstarch;
- 4 tbsp. tablespoons of butter;
- 1 head of onion;
- ½ teaspoon of finely ground salt;
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme;
- a pinch of freshly ground black pepper;
- 60 ml of heavy cream with a fat content of about 30%.
Rinse the liver, remove films and ducts, cut into pieces no more than ½ cm wide and remove excess moisture. In a wide bowl, combine the starch, salt, pepper and thyme. Roll over the pieces of liver. Melt the butter in a wide skillet and fry the liver a few slices at a time. Transfer the finished offal to the blender bowl. In the same pan where you fried the liver, fry the onion chopped in half rings until transparent. Put it in the blender bowl as well. Grind to form a smooth paste. Whip the cream with a mixer. Add them to the pate and beat again. This pate can not only be stored in the refrigerator for a week, but also frozen for up to a month.
Baked beef liver pate
It will take time to prepare this pate, but the interesting rich taste of the dish is worth it. A step-by-step recipe will allow you to prepare a recipe without much hassle. You will need:
- 500 g beef liver;
- 500 g minced pork pulp;
- 250 g pork fat;
- 5 tbsp. spoons of brandy;
- ¼ teaspoon of ground ginger;
- ¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg;
- ¼ teaspoon of ground cloves;
- ½ teaspoon of ground black pepper;
- 2 sprigs of thyme;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- 1 tbsp. a spoonful of butter;
- 2 heads of shallots;
- 1 chicken egg;
- 2 tbsp. tablespoons of cream with a fat content of about 30%;
- 1 teaspoon of salt;
- 2 tbsp. tablespoons of green peppercorns.
Grind the liver and fat in a blender and mix with the minced meat. Add cognac, thyme leaves, minced garlic, ginger, nutmeg and black pepper to the mixture. Mix well, tighten the container with the minced meat with a film and put it in the refrigerator for 10-12 hours. Remove the minced meat one hour before cooking and let it reach room temperature.
Melt the butter in a small skillet and saute the chopped shallots until soft. Suck and add to the minced meat along with a lightly beaten egg, cream, green pepper and salt. Toss and place in a baking dish. Wrap it in foil and place in a deep baking sheet, filled to the middle with hot water. Cook the pate in an oven preheated to 170 ° C for 70-80 minutes.
Remove the finished pate from the oven, press down with a load and leave to cool overnight. Serve sliced.
