Pâté à la Japonaise

No, these aren't sakura, but plum blossoms, called ume. And they're the secret ingredient that gives my chicken liver pâté a hint of Japan. 

In February, I was asked to make a tête-à-tête anniversary dinner for a friend who loves French pâté. Having her second anniversary in February, when Tokyo is frozen, the ume blossoms are the first hint that we will eventually be able to give up the layers of wool socks and spring will eventually come. Busy purveyors of seasonal goodness (and a lot of free time) will just be opening their jugs of homemade plum brandy and umeshu, that they set-up in May of the previous year. So, with a couple years worth of said brandy in my cupboard and a desire to start making my own pâté-- I give you Pâté à la Japonaise!

A bit of warning: There are bloody livers in the following illustrative photos, not for the faint of heart (or liver).

Ingredients:

1 clove

2 allspice berries

3 coriander seeds

12 peppercorns

 

Milk

A couple pinches of salt

2 shots of Ume-shu

1 medium onion, finely chopped

½ cup butter (about 115g)

1/3 cup cream (about 75mil)

Chicken or pork livers (about 450g)

Method:

Clean all spongy and strange things from the liver. Cut liver to be a similar size and thickness. Put liver in a bowl and cover with milk (soak while you chop the onion and prepare the spices).

Grind all spices together until fine. A coffee grinder works well (or mortar and pestle).

 
Melt ½ of the butter in a skillet. When butter is melted, add chopped onion and cook until soft, about 5 minutes (don’t brown the onions). Turn up the heat to high, when the pan is very hot—add the livers to the pan. Sprinkle with salt and cook the livers on one side until they begin to brown (about 1 minute). Flip and cook the other side, throwing in a shot or two of ume-shu. 

IMPORTANT: Don’t overcook the livers:-) They should be pink on the inside. Better to undercook than overcook. Turn the fire off and you should have a buttery liquid with liver and onion.  

Put everything into a food processor or blender with remaining butter, cream and spices. Purée until smooth; taste and adjust seasoning.

And now for the tiresome part: To get that velvety-like feeling of French style pâté, you must ‘sieve’ the pâté. Pour (or rather, plop) your mixture into a fine mesh strainer. With a plastic spoon (spatula) press the pate through the mesh. This can take a long time, but the texture is worth it. Alternatively, if you like a more hearty ‘country style’ pâté, you can skip this process.

 Allow long suffering felines the leftover cream....

It may not look like much now, but after 30 minutes of time/liver sieving you'll have enough Pâté à la Japonaise for a terrine or two. Chill for several hours or overnight, tightly-wrapped with plastic wrap to keep your pale pink from going brown.

Sadly, I don't have a picture of the final product. But, I'll let you in on a little secret: If you don't achieve much of a pale pink (blink and the livers have gone brown) just add a tiny bit of red food coloring. Okay, I said it. I'm guilty.  Pâté à la Japonaise is a little sweeter than your average savory pâté, but it seems to be popular with children. Good way to get them to eat their liver?