Not a liver lover? I’m not either, but I’ve started to love liver pate’s! My sister-in-law was raving about some that she had at a restaurant the other week, and I realized I hadn’t made one in a while. This one uses flavorful items to enhance the pate without overwhelming it. I love it! Wine, garlic, sauteed onions, seasonings, and anchovies (which adds depth of flavor without making it fishy) make this pate something even I love to eat.
I was also pleased to notice that Elena, my almost three year old, likes it as well. Children often do like liver, but Elena seemed to be “growing out” of her love of liver, so I was glad that she liked this.
I’m not really a gourmet. I’m just an ordinary mom who wants my food to taste good and be nourishing to my family. But every once in a while, I get a little glimpse into a more “gourmet” and rich life style. There have been a few times when I’ve gone with my husband to a really nice restaurant. It’s there I discover something.
The rich like nourishing food! Raw oysters, liver pate, fresh seafood, local produce, caviar, cream, butter, lamb….and the list goes gone.
But for some of us with more…..plebeian tastebuds, that food is a little beyond our palate. It’s been true for me. I recently bought my first jar of caviar, it was no love at first bite for me. And it’s been the same with liver. But pate’s are starting to win me over. True, they aren’t visually appealing (though I do my best). But I am really being able to enjoy it!
Exciting because not only is liver extremely nutrient dense, but it’s also cheap! You don’t have to have a big budget to be able to afford this! (Unlike that caviar, but that’s a different story!)
This would be a bit more expensive if I had been able to find organic liver. This amount, by the way, serves us pate three times (I freeze two thirds of it). It cost me about seven dollars to make the whole dish, so for each third it only cost a little over two dollars. For that reason I am labeling this recipe a $5 dollar dish.
Cost Analysis
1 pound of livers, washed (2.50)
1 cup of organic minced onions (41 cents
Garlic and Spices (.25)
Grassfed ghee (1 dollar)
8 fillets of anchovies (I used ones wrapped in capers) (2.19)
1/4 cup of organic wine (.50)
Total: $7.06
Delicious & Flavorful Liver Pate
I didn’t have time for making my own crackers, so served these with brown rice crackers. But next time I hope to also have some homemade crackers to go along with it!
1 pound of chicken livers, washed
1 cup of minced onions (
Garlic, three cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup of
, plus two more tablespoons (Butter could be used as well)
1-Over medium to med-high heat in a large saucepan, heat ghee. Add onions when hot, stir, cooking for about 5 minutes, or until softened, add garlic and thyme, cook for a minute or two more. Take off of heat and pour this mixture into food processor.
2-Heat the remaining two tablespoons of ghee until hot and add livers, cook until done on the outside but still a bit pink in the inside, add to food processor.
3-To food processor add:
8 fillets of anchovies (I used ones wrapped in capers)
1/4 cup of white wine
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
pinch of red pepper flakes
Process until well pureed and all of the ingredients are well combined.
I usually form my pate’s in three 8 ounce ramekins. I place some plastic wrap in the ramekins, followed by the pate. I freeze two of them, and place on in the fridge. When the pate is set, I turn it out onto a plate and remove the plastic wrap. It’s as simple as that!
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Where are you getting your liver? The farmer’s market I go to (Cityseed) has a NT farmer who sells beef liver for $1 per pound. He’s hopefully going to get me a few pounds of pork liver so I can make pate this winter.
Wonderful – I will have to try this recipe.
I love the photo of your daughter eating her pate!
Did you use chicken liver or beef liver?
Looks great, but like the others asked, what kind of liver?!
” When I write or share something about one of my friends in a posting, I always make sure I send them a copy of it, so they know what was said about them. Today I included information about you and your blog site in my posting, so I thought I should let you know about it as well.”
The above paragraph is the first paragraph in an email I sent out today, to all of the owners of blogs whom host “theme days”, that I could find email addresses for. But I could not find an email address on your blog.
The rest of the email is what I posted today on our blog. Go to: http://www.xanga.com/thehousethatlovebuilt to read it for yourself.
Awesome! I have about a pound of organic chicken liver in the freezer that’s waiting to be used!
Hey All,
It’s chicken liver. Will note in recipe. 🙂
Interesting! I just bought chicken livers today for the first time. I was a little apprehensive and didn’t know what I was going to do with them. You may have given me an idea! Thanks!
One thing that I forgot to mention is that it’s really important to use very fresh livers. I have found a big taste difference (I even notice that it smells better when cooking super fresh liver!)
Even though you used chicken liver, I’m assuming beef would work fine for this recipe also? Maybe with red wine instead of white? I’ve never made a pate but you make it seem good and easy.
I use a similar recipe that I got from a friend from New Orleans. In her recipe there is ground pecans (I use crispy nuts) and hard boiled eggs. I love the idea of anchovies. I can’t wait to try it. I will have it with my homemade gluten free crackers.
Hi- I’m interested In the crackers you mentioned:) is there any chance you could share that recipe with me?
Linda, if you circle back to this post, can you share your pate recipe with crispy pecans and hard boiled eggs, please?
I love chicken liver pate made with bacon and mushrooms and onions sauteed in the drippings. It’s wonderful with celery in lieu of crackers. I wish there was a way to make pork and beef liver as palatable. It has such a strong flavor. I have wonderful grassfed/forested livers but can’t figure out how to get them down the hatch besides grating frozen bits and choking them down. Anyone have any success stories?
I asked for the beef livers when we bought half of a grass fed cow and you are right they are strong flavored! But I didn’t want to waste them. So I ground them up in a blender raw. Yeah it was pretty gross looking. I froze the ground up livers in an ice cube tray. When i use ground beef i thaw one (I have used two but it makes for a stronger flavor. My husband thought it was buffalo and we like baufalo so it must have been OK) and mix it well with the beef. I also whisk my livers into the broth of soups.
I have a recipe for liver and onions that was quite palatable. The difference was that you added sage, Marsala wine, and balsamic vinegar to the sautéing onions. That gave it a nice, strong flavor that complemented the strong beef liver nicely. Or maybe “hid” is the better word!
The liver chili recipe on mommypotomus’s website is so yummy! It uses beef liver.
Pork liver is fantastic in liverwurst. I have some storebought pork liverwurst I just got and it’s soooo good. Like the liverwurst I remember from my childhood. I’m going to work on a recipe and I will post on my blog when I perfect it.
You can make beef liverwurst too. US Wellness Meats sells a very good one.
I would not recommend beef liver for pate. It’s too strong. I have tried to do pork liver for pate but I did not like it — too strong.
I am so glad to see you have posted a recipe for chicken liver pate. We just had our meat chicken’s slaughtered and usually we let the local woman who slaughter’s them for us keep the hearts and livers, but this year we decided to keep them for ourselves. I was unsure of what I was going to do with them, but I have been feeling the need for an iron boost lately as I am pregnant and still nursing my 20 month old daughter. I can’t wait to give your pate recipe a try!!
You say fresh is best – I froze all the chicken livers the day they were slaughtered. Will this really alter the taste?
This looks so delicious!
Beef and Pork Liver for Pate, some of my tricks:
Soak liver for several hours to overnight in lemon juice : water (1:1 or 1:2)
Use more spices
Mix half & half with chicken liver
Use half liver and half meat, such as pork (common in france)
I also like using duck fat or bacon drippings instead of butter sometimes, and I’ve used white and red wines, as well as homemade honey and Blueberry wines. Thanks for the new recipe!
Thanks so much for these recipes. I really enjoy liver pate, too and find it a great iron booster in pregnancy when I struggle with my levels in my last trimester. I have a bunch of liver from our 1/2 cow freezer order and I can’t wait to try your recipe. 🙂
Jenny,
As long as they are frozen fresh and used soon after defrosting, I am sure they are fine. 🙂
This sounds delicious – I made the NT one with mushrooms and my kids told me it was too mushroomy. I think I’ll give this a try.
Thanks!
Yum! I love liver pate and I also love anchovies, but I’ve never thought to combine them. This recipe is on my “make soon” list. Thank you!
I love pate. I’ll definitely make this.
Thank you for this recipe.
Looks great! I can’t have wine right now. What would be a good sub for white wine.
Angela
try vinegar, i make it do in a pinch, and my plebian taste buds don’t complain.
For people who can´t have dairy, what would you recommend as a fat sub? Olive oil?
My toddler has a dairy allergy. Can this be made with coconut oil or is ghee safe for people with dairy allergies? I just have not had a chance to check out ghee, hopefully someone will know!
I have seen recipes that call for making it with olive oil or coconut oil, so it may just be a matter of whether you will like the finished product if cooked that way. 🙂
I made this to go with our dinner the night before last. It was wonderful! I didn’t have wine so I substituted kombucha. We fed it to a non liver eating guest who ended up asking not only for seconds but thirds. I did divide it into three portions and put the other two in the freezer as suggested. It makes a very generous amount. Thank you for this recipe Kimi!
I have been needing to find a palatable liver recipe for my kids (wouldn’t hurt their parents either!). My son has an impacted tooth and a narrow jaw and I read that this kind of food along with rich butter fat and cod liver oil might help to fix the problem. Weston A. Price studied this very thing. So thank you for this pate recipe. I need to get some grass fed beef livers … may have to special order (wellnessmeats). Not enough time in the day to ingest all the fantastic info you provide here!!!
Wow! Thanks! I’ve got liver in my freezer! It just makes me feel guilty everytime I lool at it,but maybe we will like this! Last time I tried to hide liver in my meat loaf,it was terrible and my kids were suspicious of meatloaf for a year,lol:)
going for it, im trying the nt recipe as we speak! my husband loves pate.
I just made this yesterday and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I haven’t eaten liver in years, but I’ve been trying to more now that I’m pregnant. The recipe turned out perfect and looks exactly like your photo. I spread it on homemade whole wheat soaked sourdough pitas and it was FABULOUS! Thanks to you, I am now eating liver for the first time in years! I’m especially excited about how much folic acid it contains, as I’ve been trying to do the Weston A Price diet for pregnant women, and avoid commercial multivitamins. Thank you!
I can’t wait to try this! I’m hopeful, though I’m still haunted by memories of being forced to eat dry, overcooked liver growing up. Can you tell me where I could find ghee?
I just made this, but with a few tweaks:
– Halved the recipe
– Used 4 anchovy filets and 1 heaping teaspoon of capers
– Added 1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander (really kills the livery flavor)
– 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
– Omitted the allspice
Absolutely delicious and the easiest/fastest chopped liver recipe I’ve tried!
My daughter just asked what pate was yesterday. She’ll know firsthand very soon. Thanks for this!
Hey Kimi,
I’ve been looking for a good liver pate and will definitely try yours. Do you think the white wine is OK for kids? If I understood it right, you don’t bake the pate after you add the wine, so the alcohol content would still be there… Just thinking. Thanks!
I make chicken liver pate for my 16 mo son and he loves it. This recipie is a little different than mine and I was also wondering about the wine being safe for him.
The farm where I get my grass-fed meat from only sells everything frozen in one pound packages. Could I thaw the chicken livers, make the pate, and then re-freeze it? My son is the only one who eats the pate, so making one pound and not being able to freeze it would just be too much and I’d waste it. I’m never sure if you can re-freeze meat after it’s been cooked. Anxious for your comments!
Thanks for the great recipies!!!
I have a fish allergy, is there something else I could use?
I love this recipe, made it for a Christmas dinner I was invited to last month and it was a huge hit!