Paté 2011

It's paté season again. Our stocks from last year are not yet depleted; a good enough sign that I make roughly about the right amount each year.

Of course everything is a little more expensive this year; but paté is paté, and never to be skimped on.

Yesterday morning I bought a huge, nearly 6 kg, whole pork belly, a large 1.5 kg lump of 'gorge de porc' (I think this is called 'hand of pork' in the UK), a 1.3 kg whole pig liver, and just under a kilo of duck foie gras.

For the paté itself I used 2 kgs of skinned and de-boned belly, all of the 'hand', about 500gms of liver, and all the foie gras. The first three ingredients were coarsely ground and mixed with Armagnac, white wine, 6 eggs, salt-n-pepper, and herbs, etc; with the foie gras being introduced later as large walnut sized lumps in the middle of each jar. If my maths is still good, we will end up with just over 4 kgs of paté, divided amongst ten 200 gm and six 350 gm jars.

The cost was a little above €26 (the foie gras alone counting for nearly €20), which is probably in the region of £22 for the lot. If that ain't a bargain; I dunno what is.... and I also had some mix left over for a large foie gras stuffed terrine, a slice of which is below!

Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention; Whilst our wood-fired cooker was blasting out heat, Lady Magnon took advantage, and made our Christmas pud's at the same time.... 7 hrs in the steamer. They look wonderful!