Friday, November 9, 2007

Caribou Liver Pate

Yeah, yeah... I don'ts knows hows to git the high-fens over the 'e' in "pate"... But I don't care!

Here's my liver pate(') recipe, it works great for lamb, and I've had someone say it's very good for game meat (IE caribou --are you listening Brittany????????????) too.

You can use any liver you'd like, I use lamb's liver cus it's like a buck a pound down here. One lamb's liver is around 400g which is just under a pound, so you'll want around a little less than a pound of any liver.

What you need:

1 lamb's liver (about a pound of liver), thin sliced
1 small onion, rough chopped
2 or 3 chopped button mushrooms (it's the standard kind you get at the shops)
olive oil
1 tbsp (about) of butter
2 or 3 cloves roasted garlic OR 1 tbsp prepared garlic paste
red wine
sea salt
ground black pepper
1 tsp dried basil leaves


What you do:

Saute (on medium-low heat) the onion and mushrooms in a bit of olive oil till the onion is translucent. Add the butter, garlic, liver slices, red wine (around a cup of red wine) and the basil. Saute for a few mins more, then add the salt and pepper till the liver is cooked --don't forget to stir it as it's cooking! By the time the liver is cooked, most of the liquid should be cooked down. If the liquid is cooked down BEFORE the liver is done, then just add a splash of red wine to finish it. Try to keep it moving regularly, but you don't have to stand there stirring the whole time.

Let it cool, then strain it (and reserve the liquid). Put all the solids in a food processor and process till it's smooth. If it's too dry, then add some of the strained liquid, no worries. If it's still too dry after adding all of the reserved liquid, then add some olive oil.

When it's a smooth consistency that appeals to you, call it done and spoon it into a jar (boil the jar and lid first though). It'll keep for a week or so in the back of the fridge.

There's LOADS of other seasonings you can add to it; go experiment! Heck, try a bit of taco seasonings, or some curry powder, or Italian, or Moroccan; the list is endless. Add the seasonings in at the same time you'd add the basil in the above recipe. You can also add a couple of drops of Liquid Smoke too (very tasty).

Enjoy!

Oh, wait: it freezes and keeps all winter long.

2 comments:

brittany said...

oh WOW. That sounds awesome. And strange too b/c I just bought a whole bunch of basil at Freddies for just under $5. A steal. Now I'm going to have to investigate and see if we brought back any liver...
I experimented with a roast the other day, but think I might have to go with a crock pot rather than oven. I like the idea of meat that is super tender... maybe even a stew of some sort?
We didn't bring back any blood, so I guess no sausages. And Friday night we ate a ton of the burger, which a friend had made with a rather high ratio mixture of caribou:bacon. It was fantastic. Now I have a bunch of steaks and am ready to experiment...

Alaskan Dave Down Under said...

Fred's on Airport Way has a very good grocery section (especially by Squarebanks standards), cool.

A crock pot is a very good way to cook lean game, keeps it nice and moist. Make sure you have plenty of water in the crock pot so the meat doesn't have a chance of drying out: low temp for long time. Also that way whatever veggies you toss in will be soooooo good... drooling on keyboard...

I saw your post about the caribou steaks, sounds like they turned out perfect!

Nothing better than fresh game.

Oh, I'm sure you've noticed that you don't need a freezer... heck, you have the whole Goldstream valley which won't see above freezing till the end of March!

I can send you a sausage recipe that doesn't use the blood, no worries. I think it just tastes better with the blood, no biggie if it's not there. Also, if you do it sausage "patty" style you don't have to worry about finding and stuffing casings.

If our respective customs and quarantine offices would let us, I'd trade you some fresh 'roo mince for some fresh 'bou mince :)

Your friend was very smart adding the bacon with the burgers: the fat that cooks out of the bacon keeps the caribou tender and tasty.

Oh, almost forgot: game meat stew! I've got some great recipes for moose and venison stew that will easily work for caribou; lemme know if you are interested and I'll post one.

Lastly: you have to promise to take and post pics from the Ice Carvings in March!!!!!