Pate with white wine

There were so many things going on in the family for the last half a year now that I hardly had time for even such essential activities as cooking, let alone adding to my blogs, for a long long time. But life goes on, things do tend to ease (or is it that I just got used to the new conditions...?) and every once in a while I manage to venture away from the tried and true lightning fast lunches and dinners.

One such venture was a pate I prepared half out of memory, half using ad hoc additions. Are they innovative? Probably not. After all there isn't really anything new "under the sun". But it was a relatively new taste experience for the gang, deemed worthy of keeps even by my finicky male family members. The photo I took of the crackers is - of course - out of focus, because I had exactly two minutes to take it. But I hope the recipe itself will be found inspirational enough for at least some visitors to start them on a creative path. So here it goes:

1 lb beef liver
1/2 lb chicken liver
1 chicken breast
1 onion
chicken broth cube
1/2 ts marjoram
3 hardboiled eggs
3 tbs margarine (or rendered chicken fat)
paprika, salt, pepper
2 tbs flour
2tbs oil
1/2 c white wine

I chopped up the onion into large chunks, added the sliced up beef liver, enough water to cover, and the chicken broth cube. Brought the whole thing to boil and let it simmer for half an hour. Then I added the cubed chicken breast and kept on cooking. I also cooked the eggs, let them cool and then peeled them.

When both the liver and the meat were nice and soft, I added the chicken livers and the marjoram. After this I kept an eye on the pot and cooked it just until the chicken livers were not red any more. I took the pot off the stove and let it cool to lukewarm.

The final ingredient was a roux made of the flour and oil, fried until it became light blond, at which point I took it off the heat, waited a minute, and then I slowly stirred the wine into it. It was still sputtering a bit but it quickly cooked into a not too thick paste.

Now I put everything, meats, eggs roux, into my blender (a nice big VitaMix) and blended the pate to a smooth paste, using just enough of the cooking liquid to give it a thick pancake batter consistency. (It thickens further as it cools) I adjusted the flavouring with some extra salt, pepper, and a bit of paprika. The wine was seemingly overpowering at first, while the mix was still warm, but it became very mild and pleasing as the pate aged - which it did not have too much time to do in our house, I can imagine it getting even nicer after a day or so if given the chance.