chicken liver

Default Pasta: Chicken Livers with Truffles, Pink Peppercorns & S.Pellegrino

02 Feb 2010
ingredients for chicken liver pasta

Quick boil some water!

No I'm not having a baby– it's Default Pasta Night!

At my house Default Pasta makes regular appearances. In fact I'd even go so far as to call these appearances star turns. That's because learning how to bring forth quick, flavorful weeknight meals can be a lifesaver, and a toe-tapper as you will see.

There are a lot of good reasons to master the concept of Default Pasta. Maybe you have not been to the grocery store for weeks and the fridge and pantry are pretty bare. But never fear, because if you follow my rules for Default Pasta you can make any meal special.

Of course in my world (well, most of our worlds really) Default Pasta Night happens at the end of a long day, you are tired, hungry and just want to turn the TV on and sing and dance along with Glee. Singing and dancing with hot soup is hell on the carpet, and you are sure to burn your vocal chords. That's where the Default Pasta rules come in and that's what the pot of boiling water I used as my opening hook is for; cooking dried pasta, the greatest friend a weeknight cook has ever had.

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Wikipedia defines Rumaki as"an hors d'oeuvre of mock-Polynesian origin"

17 Dec 2009
rumaki

Now that's funny!

So funny, in fact, that I have added Rumaki to my Panama cooking party menu. In case you have been living under a rock I'll go ahead and tell you that I was invited to Panama by Boquete Gourmet to lead a demonstration on cooking. I am being hosted by a group of rather glamorous ex-pats who get together and learn about food by inviting chefs and other food-obsessed freaks like me to come to the beautiful village of Boquete, near the Costa Rican border and cook. I have decided to do an evening of small plates highlighting recipes from several legendary Hollywood restaurants.

So when I saw the Wikipedia reference to Rumaki not only did I laugh, but I also took note of another fun fact– "the earliest known reference to it is on the 1941 menu of the Don the Beachcomber restaurant".

 

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Rumaki

rumaki
By jgreghenry Published December 16, 2009
Prep time: 45
Yield:1 ()

Ingredients:

  • 1 t anise seeds
  • 3 T brown sugar
  • 1 T kitchen bouquet
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1.5 t salt
  • 1 lb sliced bacon
  • 12 whole canned water chestnuts
  • 0.5 lb chicken livers, rinsed, with dark spots and veins removed

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Combine chicken livers, anise seeds, brown sugar, Kitchen Bouquet, bay leaves, and salt. Cook gently over medium low heat until barely cooked through, about 8 minutes. Remove pan from the heat and move the chicken livers to a plate and let them cool. Keep the sauce in the pan and set it aside. Once cool enough to handle cut the livers into chunks about the same size as the water chestnuts. Lay one slice of bacon on a work surface in front of you. Place a water chestnut and a piece of liver at the end of the piece of bacon. Carefully roll the bundle until encased in the bacon. You will probably only use a half piece of bacon. Trim the bacon at that point. Use a tooth pick to secure the opening making sure to pass it through both the water chestnut and the liver and back through the other side of the bacon. Use the other half of the bacon for the next rumaki. Repeat with the rest of the pieces. One at a time return the rumaki to the pan holding the sauce. Carefully roll each rumaki in the sauce until it is well coated. Lay the rumaki bundles as you finish each one on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake in oven for 20 minutes until well browned and crisp. Serve warm.

Notes:

serves 6 Source: Don The Beachcomber

Terrine de Campagne with pink Peppercorns

Terrine de Campagne with pink Peppercorns
By jgreghenry Published November 28, 2009
Prep time: 360
Yield:1 ()

Ingredients:

  • 0.5 lb lean pork (such as loin) cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 1 c chciken livers, trimmed
  • 4 sli bacon roughly chopped
  • 1 t salt
  • 0.5 t black peppercoens, lightly crushed
  • 1 T pink peppercorns, lightly crushed
  • 3 T brandy
  • 2 medium shallots, minced
  • 2 egg, lightly beaten
  • 8 bay leaves, whole
  • 12 sli bacon, left whole

Directions

12 or 13 slices of bacon 1. Put the pork loin cubes, chicken livers and roughly chopped bacon into the bowl of your food processor equipped with the blade attachment. 2. Pulse the mixture 12 or 15 times, scraping the sides down 2 or 3 times during the process. You are looking for a very varied texture. Do not over process. 3. Once you are happy with the texture move the meat mixture to a large mixing bowl. Add the salt, pink and black peppercorns and the brandy. Stir to incorporate. Next, add 2 lightly beaten eggs along with the shallots. Mix this all together quite well. 4. Choose a three cup terrine mold, or some other oven proof dish of appropriate size and shape 5. Lay a single file line of bay leaves along the bottom of my terrine. These are mostly for flavor, but they can be a pretty decoration as well. Either way, they are and optional. 6. Line the long sides of terrine with strips of bacon. Leave enough bacon hanging over both sides to cover the top. Line the entire length of the mold. But the two ends should be left open with out a bacon covering. 7. Spoon the meat mixture into the terrine mold. Filling nearly all the way to the top, but leave about 1/4 inch of space. Fold the hanging bacon up and over the entire top of the terrine. 8. If your mold has a lid put that onto cover the terrine. If not, cut a piece of parchment to size and wrap the whole terrine all the way around in aluminum foil. Let the flavors come together in the refrigerator at least 6 hours. Overnight is better. 9. When you are ready to cook the terrine preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the covered terrine in a large baking dish and pour water into the baking dish to come halfway up the sides of the terrine. 10. Bake this in the bain-marie for 1 1/2 hours, or until the pâté starts to pull away from the sides of the mold. 11. Lift the terrine out of the water and set it aside to cool completely while still covered. 12. Once it is cool, drain off any extra liquid in the terrine mold. You may need to run a knife along the edges of the mold to be assured that it is not sticking. 13. Invert the mold onto a serving platter. Use a very sharp serrated knife to cut the pâté into slices. Serve with crusty bread and any combination of traditional accompaniments.

Notes:

serves 10 Source: This recipe is adapted from one in Maria Villegas’ and Sarah Randall’s Cookbook The Food Of France

An Apple a Day Paté and Pie Eating At the Original Farmers Market

17 Oct 2009
pate and apples

Well, I don't really know where to start.

You probably know this is day 4 in my An Apple A Day series. I mean that's why you are here right? You certainly could not have googled your way on over, because today's post is just too odd, too random.

Because I have a recipe for an easy but elegant paté served with sauté ed maple-glazed apples, and this recipe is sharing the stage with a pie-eating contest. See what I mean, you never would have googled that!

Which leaves me with the same question. Where to start?

I guess I will start with the paté. Don' let the term paté scare you off. It's not a difficult preparation. I based this recipe on Michel Richard's Chicken Faux Gras. I simplified it, though his version is not too difficult either. He serves it with a Parsley Gelée that is every bit as ingenious as the cleverly named faux gras. But this is apple week– so no parsley for Sup!

Instead I paired my paté with some maple glazed apple slices. It's a natural pairing of flavors and really works well with the earthy richness of this chicken liver spread. I am pretty happy with my concoction.

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