Poor Girl's Pate: Mushrooms, Chicken Livers and Truffle Oil

Poor Girl's Pate.
Yes, I had it for breakfast this morning. Too, too good!

Back when Izzy was a newborn, she had a hard time with dairy products, and her Mom, who was nursing her, had to give them all up. This is a tough thing in this family; we are all Francophiles, and while we can do without a lot of things, good cheese is dear to our hearts. We came up with a lot of alternatives for Susan, --dairy-free cakes, cookies and I even changed up my favorite pate recipe to eliminate all the dairy products. Now that Izzy is older, and has gotten past her dairy issues, I am back to the original recipe, more or less, and I have to say, while the dairy free one is delicious, this one hits the ball out of the park. How can you go wrong with chicken livers, mushrooms, and truffle flavors? Ball out of the park? Can you tell I fell asleep last night watching the Phillies with Chuck?

I call this Poor Girl's Pate because, while I'd like to be able to afford to use real truffles and duck or goose livers to make it, my budget (and probably yours) is a lot happier with chicken livers, truffle oil and truffle salt. This is wonderful as a snack, hors d'oeuvre, or with a soup or salad for lunch or dinner. I admittedly had it for breakfast this morning. Mea culpa.

Poor Girl's Pate

2T butter
2T extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 large shallots, chopped fine
8 to 10 oz. sliced cremini mushrooms
kosher salt
1 lb. chicken livers
1/4 cup brandy or cognac
1-1/2 tsp. Herbes de Provence
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 scant tsp. black truffle salt
1/3 cup crème fraîche, homemade or purchased
4 tsp. Black truffle oil

Heat the butter and oil together in a 12" skillet over medium heat, and when the butter is melted, add the shallots and garlic, and stirring, cook until the shallots begin to look translucent. 

Add the mushrooms to the pan, add a pinch or two of kosher salt, and cook until they give up their juices and soften. Add the chicken livers to the pan, stir well to mix evenly with the mushroom mixture, and carefully add the cognac or brandy. If you have a gas range, if you tilt the pan away from you slightly toward the gas fire, and flame the brandy. If you have an electric or induction range, you can either use a match, or just let the alcohol cook out for a minute or two. 

Flaming the brandy or cognac.
Keep back, and keep a lid handy to smother it if the flames get out of hand.

When the brandy is mostly gone, add the Herbes de Provence and the white wine, stir well, and cook the liver mixture until the livers are just pink inside. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the truffle salt.

Dump the contents of the skillet into a food processor, and puree. Add the crème fraîche and black truffle oil and puree until completely smooth.

Serve with baguette, toasts, crackers or on pear slices. 

Makes about 2 cups. 

Truffle Envy: Orechette with Truffled Lobster & Shrimp

There was a run on truffle cutters at work this week. Really, our store ran out. Every one we had sold, so apparently, our neighbors over at DiBruno Brothers in Ardmore were selling truffles hand over fist. One lady on Monday, disappointed that we had no more cutters, kindly showed me her little plastic tub of rice with 2 walnut-sized black truffles in it. She complained that they had been out of the white Italian truffles, so she'd had to settle for the black ones. I wanted to snatch the container from her hands and run like hell. I have some self control, though not much when it comes to truffles.

Not having a truffle budget, I've added all sorts of truffle-infused products to my pantry and freezer so I can indulge my cravings without going broke. D'Artagnan's black truffle butter, some black truffle salt, and black truffle oil were going to have to do the job of my still-coveted black truffle shavings. Lounging in the freezer were two small Maine lobster tails and part of a bag of Gulf shrimp leftover from our Christmas festivities. New Year's Day is still a reason to have a nice dinner, especially since it was just going to be the two of us, and I was using up leftovers, right? Luxurious leftovers, to be sure, but hey, the holidays come but once a year.

The actual hands-on cooking part goes fast, but you'll need to start about 45 minutes ahead, since so much of the flavor of this dish comes from making a quick stock from the shrimp and lobster shells and cooking it down. That takes next to no work on your part and is crucial to the deep seafood flavor of this dish. And please, if you can, buy domestic seafood whenever you can for both food safety and keeping our fishermen at work.

I love this so much, I'm having a VERY happy new year so far...I think you will too, if you make this for dinner soon.

Lobster, shrimp and truffles, oh, my!

Orechette with Truffled Lobster & Shrimp 

Ingredients:

2 (4-6 oz) Maine lobster tails, thawed 
12 oz. Gulf shrimp, thawed
1/2 cup dry white wine
2T D'Artagnan black truffle butter
two pinches black truffle salt
2T minced fresh chives
Black truffle oil to drizzle

2 oz. whole wheat orechette pasta, or small shells

Instructions:

1. Shell and devein the shrimp, and remove the lobster meat from the shells, by cutting through the underside of the shells with a scissors and pulling the meat free.  Cut the lobster into 5-6 bite sized pieces, and then place all of the shellfish in a bowl and refrigerate. 

2. Place all the shells into a medium saucepan, add the white wine, and barely cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook about 20 minutes until there is just about 1 cup of liquid left in the pot. Strain out all the shells, and place the resulting stock back into the saucepan.

The lobster shells will turn bright red as they cook,
 and depending on the variety of shrimp you've used,
 their shells will turn pink.

3. Bring a pasta pot of water to a boil, salt well, and cook the orechette until just past al dente, about 11-12 minutes. Drain and set aside.

4. Bring the stock to a boil in the saucepan, add all the shrimp and lobster, and cook stirring just until the shrimp and lobster are opaque. Add the truffle butter, the truffle salt, and the chives and stiruntil the butter has melted and the sauce looks creamy. Add the pasta and cook for another minute, tossing the pasta in the sauce to coat well. Place in a heated serving bowl, and drizzle with the truffle oil just before serving.

Serves 2-3

Two Brand Taste Test: Black Truffle Butter, Je t'aime!

I really do love truffle butter. Then again, I love anything with truffles in it, especially black truffles. Cheeses, oils, salts -- you name it. I once spent my last $100 on a tiny can of truffle parings. Worth every moment of the ensuing poverty. Like white truffles, love the black truffles. I could probably eat styrofoam packing peanuts if they were glazed with black truffle butter. Had my first taste of black truffle as a teenager in France and have never looked back. Must. Have. Truffles.

Since oily things like olive oil and butter carry the flavor further than anything else I can think of, I am fully stocked with truffle oils and butter. The butter I keep frozen so I can have it on hand to dress up any dish I want at the last moment.

Now generally, when I wanted black truffle butter, I'd spring for a tiny tub of the good stuff from D'Artagnan. About 8 bucks for a tiny tub of goodness to spread on a fresh baguette, stir into rice or mashed potatoes, or just let melt over a nice steak. This is about enough for one meal at my house, but it's as close to the real thing as I can get without a trip to France...on my budget.  I do tend to save it for special occasions, like  holidays or when I really need a pick-me-up.

Anyway, last week, as I was trolling through my local Wegman's, ready to grab a pound of regular butter out of the fridge case, the word "truffle" jumped out at me from a little rack of finishing butters. What? Truffle butter? $2.49??? Really?  Wegman's Truffle Finishing Butter. So I bought one, like any good truffle addict would do. Hurrried home, cracked open the little tub, and smeared a bit on a piece of bread. OK, it's not exactly black truffle butter. 

The verdict: it is good. Not quite the same as the Black Truffle Butter from D'Artagnan, which is fabulous, but good enough to have it on hand always so that instead of waiting for a special occasion, I can make a Tuesday night dinner special with it. While the  D'Artagnan product has a short list of good ingredients-(Pure Creamery Butter, Truffles, Truffle Oil (Sunflower Oil, Aroma), Truffle Juice, Soy Sauce.) The Wegman's product has ingredients, while not exactly as high-flown- (Unsalted Butter (Cream, Natural Flavorings), Chablis Wine, Natural Flavor Blend (Salt, Organic Corn Starch, Natural Butter Flavor, Maltodextrin, Soy Lecithin, Xanthan Gum and Sunflower Oil), Truffles, Natural and Artificial Truffle Flavor, Cultured Dextrose, Salt.) but they still make a darn good tasting product.

I'll probably stick to the D'Artagnan product to embellish a nice grass-fed filet on my plate, but when I need to give Tuesday's green beans and mushrooms a jolt, I can reach for the Truffle Finishing Butter from Wegman's and use the whole tub if I want. 

Note: I don't work for either company, they don't pay me for any promotion, and I bought both in my local market.

Black Truffle Butter, je t'aime!

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