Pate Julia Child Recipe
Lorin Cupples
since I was exhausted (long weekend!) and had band practice immediately upon returning home. There are no rewards without time and hard work though, and that goes for music as well as cooking. That said, this recipe is an easy one that you can put together in 30-40 minutes the next time you want to add a little French sophistication to your appetizer spread.
Rinse and drain the livers and remove the stringy fatty bits. Julia instructs removing any green or black spots (eww), but my livers fortunately did not have any. Cut the livers into 1/2-inch pieces. Melt the 2 tbs butter in a heavy skillet and saut the shallot until it begins to soften, then add the livers. Cook until firm but still rosy on the inside. Scrape pan contents into the bowl of a food processor.
Wish I were there!! Everything looks scrumptious and that liver pate of yours even more!
BTW, Noelle, next time you come to Oakland mall, drop me a line in advance so we plan something!
BTW2 ? where did you get you lovely kitchen curtain from? The one on the preserved lemon post. It is so cute!!!
David, I made this yesterday. I ground up everything myself. I added extra liver and doubled the recipe as well. One set had dried cherries and pistachios,the other just as made. It held together well. This recipe is incredible!
When I indulge in pt I like it to look just like that terrine. There is a restaurant in the 16th near me that serves a similarly rustic version gratis along with the bread basket. My cousin visiting from the US had the nerve to ask for more, two times. I have to give kudos to the waiter who smiled tightly and brought extra servings.
My wife and I have spent Jan-Feb in the 16th for the past 9 years what is The name of the restaurant and do you have other favorites. One of our favorites is Stella on Victor Hugo and Pompe.
Thank you
Steve W
Shira
Thank you for the information. Looks like you are close to where we stay. We rent on Bd mile Augier. If you get over to the 7th, two favorites are La Fountaine de Mars for dinner or Les Cocottes for lunch.
Looking at your recipe, I am still a little bit confused about the size the meat needs to be cut in. It is said half inch and then (1/5 cm). You meant 1,5 cm (= 15mm European way of writing numbers) ?
I bought a pre-owned terrine mold or three from the charcutier at the Grenelle market in Paris 15th for 1 Euro apiece. They have a basket of maybe 10 to choose from. They are at the end near the La Motte Piquet Metro stop under the elevated part of Line 6. (Starbucks end).
I was wondering the same thing, Would love to have one of these in The freezer. It works out great when I make traditionel scandinavian liver pate. But those are completely smooth which might make a difference.
I made it and followed it to the letter. I live in Vancouver British Columbia which even in these covid times remains a foodie city. I was able to find gorgeous turkish apricots ( So necessary for the sweetness and unsalted pistachios. My cuisinart chopped the meats to the desired chunky consistency. Use short pulses and be sure the meat is very very chilled. This is a spectacular terrine. I would recommend following it exactly as written.
Dear David thank-you xxxx
Hi David, I wish that you would only publish recipes that fit into my current food ideology. I was wondering if you could tell me how to make a dairy free vegetarian version of this terrine without nuts or dried fruit. Thanks!
I would not send unrefrigerated meat products unless using an overnight mailing service and packing the terrine with some sort of cold-packs (or maybe dry ice?) to keep it at a proper food-safe temperature in transit.
I added a note to the headnote of the recipe that people might want to puree the liver here, too, but I circled to Kate, one of the authors of the book, as I thought it might be a difference between American and French meat products. She had someone test it in the U.S. but will recheck her notes and get back to us.
Hi all, To make sure the recipe worked, I made the Terrine again and it came out really well. I chronicled the process in video steps on Instagram and you can watch them here. I did make it in a metal loaf pan to verify the baking time and used ground pork, to see how that would work, and it worked just as well as the hand-chopped pork. : )
I made this on Tuesday, and we had it for lunch yesterday and today. It is extremely good, and ridiculously simple to make. Thanks, David, another winner! Ate it with Farm Boy Swiss brown bread if any other Ontarians are following, which was the perfect accompaniment.
Thanks for circling back. Yes, I also found that using preground pork threw off a lot of liquid, much more than I thought! (I added that to the headnote to alert others it might happen.) Happy you liked it too!
I made this in a loaf pan, with the only variation was, after much discussion with the Boss, to add an egg. I also used the MagiMix to process the meat and got a little finer chunk size than from chopping by hand. Results are delicious, and there was no problem with it holding its shape. Really surprised the apricots add such a touch of sweetness to the terrine.
This looks so beautiful with the apricots and pistachios shining in grayish pink (or pinkish gray?). This orange and green combination makes me think of the salt cake (forget the right term for it) you once posted some time ago, which is also amazing that I had to make another loaf to stick with the plan as I had eaten the first one too much when I noticed.
I noticed when I checked the terrine after the baking time that the liquid in the middle was very pink and so put it back into the oven for 10 minutes. After I removed the terrine from the oven and the water bath, I noticed that the terrine left the side of the container all around and had shrunk a lot while yours in your pictures was very much still stuck to the sides of your ceramic dish. Next time, I will adjust the temperature and also grind some chicken liver and stir the whole mixture so that it gets sticky before I bake. I think that should solve the crumbly problem. Thank you very much for the recipe. It is delicious and such a treat. Thank you also for all the tips and follow up advice.
What is great about this pate is it not only makes a wonderful starter to a meal, but it also can be a meal in itself. Just add some olives, goat cheese, cherry tomatoes and bread, and you have an elegant, light summer supper!
Pates and terrines are similar, but pate is smooth and terrines tend to be chunky. I found that this makes a very large pate or terrine loaf. For most parties, 1/2 of the recipe works well for me. Excellent served with crackers or toasts made from skinny baguettes.
** To toast hazelnuts: Spread the nuts on a baking sheet with a lip and toast them in a preheated 350 degrees F. oven for 10 to 12 minutes, until the meat of the nuts is slightly browned. Put the nuts in a clean tea towel and rub them. About 75% of the brown, paper-thin inner skins will come off on the towel and that is usually enough.
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When a friend and I were took our pastry classes some years ago, we were taught a dough described as "pate sablee" which was simply a sweetended pate brisee, using cold ingredients, the brisee method, but including a few tablespoons of sugar. In researching pate sablee recently, we find that formulae very but that most seem to use the creaming method and include egg yolks.
Sweetened brise is usually called pate sucre. Sable means "sandy" ... it's usually a whole different animal. I guess you could debate if a traditional sable is even really pastry. It's more like a cookie dough. Sables are made like you describe, with creamed ingredients,or at least thoroughly mixed flour and fat, and a texture more like a sugar cookie or a fig newton.
I should have made note of pate sucree in my original post. Sucree and brisee use 2 distinct methods, sucree with the creaming method brisee with a cold method which makes something akin to a quick or "rough" laminated dough.
I can add to the egg question. When I do a recipe, I look through all my books and list their ratios to see what overall patterns turn up. For "sable breton" I have 9 recipes--San Francisco Baking Institute, S. Glazier, Herme, Galloyer, LaRousse Des Desserts, LaRousse, Professional French Pastry Series (2), Healy--6 call for yolk, 3 call for egg, all using eggs. Unfortunately, I didn't note methods.
Just now taking a quick look, the Professional French Pastry Series recognizes 1. pate a foncer, always with sablage method; 2. pate sucree, either the sablage or the creaming method; and 3. pate sablee, usually the sablage method. The PFPS describes sablage as coating the flour with fat before adding the liquids; creaming as mixing liquids with fat, then adding the flour.
The LaRousse des Desserts, Herme, recognizes 1. pate brisee aka pate a foncer, with yolk, with a creaming method; 2. pate brisee, without egg, with a creaming method; 3. pate sablee with a sablage method; 4. pate sucree with a creaming method. Beyond methods of the order in which you add the ingredients, the pate brisee is mixed using the heel of the hand to smear the dough until homogenized. The pate sablee is worked with the fingertips until mixed but not too well mixed.The pate a foncer and pate sucree are just mixed with a wooden spoon or spatula to well incorporated.
Looking farther back, to Escoffier, basically all the pastries (including brisee) are made by this method. The ones that don't fully incorporate the butter into the flour are the truly laminated pastries (feullettee, etc.).
So, it seems that there's been some evolution not just in the terminology but in the pastry itself. What used to be called sucree seems now to be called sablee. Which means that sucree has at least in some cases morphed into something else. The usage I've seen that isn't redundant with sablee, is basically a sweetened version of pate brisee.
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