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. 

Easy Curry Lime Sauce: Everything Gets Sauced

My third grade nun always used to tell us that the road to hell was paved with good intentions. I'm sure she was trying to impress on us at the ripe old age of eight that what matters is what you actually do, not what you intend to do. In those days it mostly used to pertain to homework. Good intentions on my part, now that I'm grown, tend to be more along the lines of getting stuff from my to-do list crossed off.

Blood Orange Lamb Ragout with Goat Cheese Gnocchi was my plan for this blog post. But thanks to this unruly March weather, our dinner plans were switched from Saturday to Sunday, and while I did make the lamb ragout, there are no goat cheese gnocchi to be seen. Since I did not make dinner at home yesterday, the ragout will be tonight's dinner, with some whole wheat gnocchi from Italy. Ragouts are always better a day or two later, so that's no problem. What was a problem, was deciding what to write about today. I was thinking about it as I had lunch, cold roast pork with leftover Curry Lime Sauce, some sliced beets and hard cooked eggs, also napped with the sauce. Here was one of the best things I like to keep around in the fridge, right under my nose, (on my plate!) and I hadn't shared it with you. Shameful!

There a few sauces that keep well, and are a joy to have on hand because you can use them on just about anything, anytime, anywhere, which makes them as useful as a little black dress. This is one of them. this curry-lime sauce really jazzes up hors d'oeuvres, lunches and leftovers. Good as a binder for tuna, lobster or chicken salad. Cold meat or fish are great with it, hot or cold vegetables, especially asparagus, beets and cauliflower...cocktail meatballs, crab fingers... This one happens to be low fat, but rich tasting at the same time. You can also make it as spicy as you like, or not depending on the curry powder you choose. I made it last Saturday morning to serve with cold shrimp while my pal Betty was visiting, and it's still in great shape...although there is next to none left as I tend to eat it on everything. 

Easy Curry Lime Sauce

1/2 cup fat free plain Greek yogurt
2T (or more) Curry Powder, hot Madras, or your choice of milder
2T Olive Oil, extra virgin
3T fresh lime juice
1-2 T cane sugar or erythritol, or equivalent stevia depending on brand to taste
salt

Place everything but sweetener and salt into a small bow, and whisk until smooth. Add the sweetener of choice and whisk again. Taste for sweetness/spice balance, correct and add salt as needed. Chill for 1 or more hours so flavor can meld. 

Makes about 3/4 cup.

Easy Curry Lime Sauce: Everything Gets Sauced

Brandade de Morue: A Ghost of Christmas Past

Two weeks ago, at a local bistro called Ella's, I had a wonderful brandade as an appetizer. I hadn't had any in years. I knew I had to make it again and soon. Because mine was better and I still had a scribbled list of ingredients...

Nearly 30 years because that was the last time I made it myself. Back in my twenties, I had a neighbor, Phil Dennis, who was a very fine cook, and a great mentor.  Some years previously I'd gotten the recipe for Brandade de Morue from a good French cook, but she'd simply jotted me a list of ingredients. I'd loved it when she made it, but up to that time my only cooking encounter with salt cod was baccala that some of my relatives served at Christmas. Luckily I had Phil to ask for help ( this was pre-home computers, about 1982) and armed with my ingredient list, and a couple of pounds of salt cod from the Reading Terminal Market, we managed to turn out several baking dishes of this absolutely heady, garlicky, unctuous seafood and potato puree. It also included several trips to the library (no Google), a messy kitchen and swapping cookbooks back and forth. We really put my new kitchen gadget...called a Cuisinart Food Processor through its paces.  Boy, that stuff was good!

I served it bubbling hot before Christmas dinner that year, and my mother, who was famous for eating so many hors d'oeuvres that she couldn't eat dinner, planted herself in front of the dish and didn't move. Well, Mom won't be at my Christmas dinner table, but I know she'll be there in spirit, planted firmly in front of the brandade.

Note: Most good fish markets, especially in Italian or Hispanic neighborhoods, will have salt cod. Plan ahead with the soaking time.

Sadly, we won't be eating this until tomorrow...

Brandade de Morue
Serves 8 as an appetizer

12 oz. salt cod, a thick filet
4 cups water
2 whole allspice berries
1/2 tsp. dry thyme leaves
2 whole cloves
5 whole peppercorns
3 bay leaves
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 large shallot, sliced (about 1/4 cup)
2 lb. russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup garlic confit
(or 4 garlic cloves, sliced and cooked in 1/4 cup of olive  oil, use the oil, too)
Salt and pepper to taste

a crusty baguette, sliced, and toasted or not...

1. Two or three days ahead of when you want to serve the brandade, place the salt cod in a deep bowl, cover with water and place in the fridge. Change the water at least twice daily. This will remove the excess salt, and rehydrate the fish.

2. Place 4 cups of water is a deep, covered saucepan, and add the thyme, the cloves, the allspice the peppercorns, and the bay leaves.  Bring to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes. Remove from the heat, and with a slotted spoon, remove the cloves, peppercorns, allspice and bay leaves and discard. Drain the salt cod, and rinse. Add the garlic, shallot and the drained salt cod to the pot, bring to a bare simmer and cook, partly covered until the fish flakes easily, 15 t0 20 minutes.

3. Remove the fish, along with the garlic and shallot to a bowl and set aside. Add the potatoes to the fish stock and cook, partly covered until tender. Remove the potatoes to the bowl with the fish, and reduce the remaining liquid to about 1/4 cup. Watch carefully, so the starchy stock doesn't burn. Add the heavy cream and reduce until you have between 1/2 cup and 2/3 cup of reduced cream mixture. add the garlic confit to the hot cream mixture and remove from the heat.

4.Preheat the oven to 400ºF.  Place the salt cod and potatoes into the bowl of a food processor, along with the shallots and garlic. Add about half of the hot cream, and process until creamy. Add as much of the remaining cream as needed. It should be the consistency of smooth mashed potatoes. Taste for seasoning. If you soaked the salt cod long enough, it may need salt, and will certainly need a jolt of good black pepper.

4. Oil a flattish baking dish or two. Place the brandade in the baking dish(es), drizzle the top with some olive oil, and place in the oven for about 15 minutes, until browned and bubbly. Serve with sliced baguette to spread it on.