May 22, 2015
Fabulous Friday Flavour: Bhut Jolokia & Truffle Oil Chicken Liver Pate
What do you do with the livers when you buy a fresh, whole chicken with all its head and feet still intact? Well, you make pate of course! (The livers, not the chicken’s head and feet!)
It’s actually so easy to dismiss those livers and I almost made the mistake of throwing it away, thinking that they belong to the waste bin. But I recovered in time and in the midst of making my Roasted Chicken Rice last week, I thought I would experiment with a new recipe inspired by one of the dishes we had in Prague with the use of one of the hottest peppers in the world: Bhut Jolokia.
Reputed as one of the top 5 hottest peppers in the world with 1 million SHU (Scoville Heat Units), a teeny-weeny use of it works wonders for the dish for that little bit of kick that makes you crave for more.
A quick google later, I decided to adapt a pate recipe inspired by Jamie Oliver and giving it a little twist of my own. Magic was created in virtually no time at all!
Home-made pate, crackers and a side of Dutch cheeses…hmmm…life is wonderful!
- 180g butter
- 240g fresh chicken liver
- 2 shallots, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and pressed
- sprigs of fresh sage
- a sprig of fresh thyme
- 1/2 tspn cumin
- 2-3 drops of truffle olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- A dash of Bhut Jolokia chilli flakes
- Pre-heat oven to 120 °C.
- Put half the butter in an aluminium foil container and put it in the oven till it slowly melt and separated (about 10 minutes). Remove from the oven and strain the yellow clarified butter into a separate container. Set aside to cool. Discard the rest
- Heat a little olive oil in the pan. Fry the shallots and pressed garlic till soft. Add in the cumin and thyme. Mix thoroughly. Remove from the pan and set aside. Clean the pan with a kitchen paper towel. Turn up the heat and fry the livers with some sage
- Cook the liver for a couple of minutes on each side till they are lightly coloured. Leave it a little pink on the inside - overcooking the livers would mean that you are likely to get a grainy texture rather than a smooth one.
- Remove the livers and chuck them in a bowl, along with the pan-fried shallots and garlic earlier. Blitz them up till it becomes a soft puree. (I use a hand blender). Then add the remaining softened butter, salt and pepper and continue to blitz.
- Lastly, add in a dash of Bhut Jolokia Chilli flakes and truffle oil. Mix well with a spoon and transfer the mixture into a serving bowl.
- Sprinkle the remaining sage over the pate, then spoon the clarified butter over it. Leave it to set in the fridge for at least an hour.
- Serve whenever you are ready and dig in with crackers or toasted bread.
The pic of the peppers is amazing. Awesome recipe like always. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank YOU for leaving a comment, dear Faraday. You made my day! Isn’t it awesome you can just pull out great pictures from google image!