Brandied Chicken Paté with Green Peppercorns

Yesterday after work I went to the grocery store to buy some liver. Now before you think I've gone off my rocker (ewwww does anyone really like liver?) let me tell you why. I got it stuck in my head to make my own paté. I love paté, but I don't love all the fat they put in it, plus the best paté comes from the sausage guy at Granville Island who does not have nutritional values provided, so who knows how many calories are in it. Don't get me wrong, I still intend to have that as a treat once in a rare while, but when I came across this recipe for Lightened Up Paté I totally thought, I can do that. It involves a 1:1 ratio of chicken livers and chicken thighs, no pork fat or chicken fat at all (though I did add a tablespoon of cream to give it a nicer texture). Healthy, really, since liver is very high in iron and other nutrients, as is chicken thigh meat, and they are both pretty good calorie-wise. Now I have never bought chicken livers in my life, nevermind cooked them, but I really wanted to try this. So I thought I'd suck it up and just do it, and if it was a disaster, I bet my cat would like it! I purchased said livers, and said chicken thighs, and cooked them all up according to the directions (apparently liver should still be light pink in the centre, I had to keep mushing them up to check, man it took a long time to cook those things!), cooked up the onions and some garlic to go in, added some other touches of my own, blended it all up and voila, paté! Delicious paté, too!! How totally exciting!

Brandied Chicken Paté with Green Peppercorns
adapted from Lightened Up Chicken Paté with Brandy at nourishnetwork.com

200g chicken livers, cleaned and trimmed
200g boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 2" peices
2 tsp olive oil
1/2C finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper, black or blend
2 Tbsp dry white wine
2 Tbsp brandy
1 Tbsp whipping cream
1 tsp green peppercorns

First prepare your chicken livers and thighs, sprinkle with half the salt and pepper and set aside.

Heat a non-stick pan on medium-high and add oil, onions, and garlic. Season with remaining salt and pepper and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the chicken livers and continue to cook until livers are seared on the outside and light pink on the inside (do not overcook). Transfer to a bowl or food processor.

In the same pan, add the thighs and sauté until they are browned, then add wine and simmer until cooked throughout and wine is mostly absorbed. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Add the thighs and the remaining ingredients to the bowl of liver and onions. Using either a food processor or a handblender, pulse until mixture is smooth and uniform. Transfer to a vessel of your choosing and chill for at least 2 hours. I went with plastic-wrap-lined ramekins (fills three small ramekins) because I intend to freeze two of them. Using the plastic wrap means you can just pop it out and invert it cleanly onto a plate.

Serve with slices of baguette (I bought a multigrain ficelle and it's perfect with this), crackers or any GF cracker for those with gluten intolerance, cornichons, and hey remember that bottle of wine you had to open to use 2 stinkin' tablespoons in this recipe? Well that wine would go awfully nice with this too ;).

Nutritional values: for 1/6 of recipe (about 4 Tbsp): 95 calories,3.5g fat, 10.8g protein, 1.4g carbs, .2g fibre, 144mg sodium.

Not bad considering store-bought paté is around 160 cals/14g fat for the same amount!