Ingredients

3 cooking apples, peeled and cored
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium chicken, jointed into 6 pieces or 6 chicken legs
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 tablespoon plain flour
80 ml/3 fl oz Calvados
2 cups chicken stock
30 g/1 oz butter
125 ml/4 fl oz crème fraîche
Serves 6

To cook

Finely chop 1 apple into small dice, and the other 2 into wedges. Toss in the lemon juice. Heat the oil in a pan and add the chicken pieces. Cook until golden brown, adding a little more oil if necessary, then remove from the pan and keep warm. Add the onion, celery and diced apple and cook for 5 minutes or until wilting but not browned. Remove the pan from the heat and sprinkle in the flour, stirring to combine. Add the Calvados and return to the heat. Gradually stir in the chicken stock. Add the chicken to the pan and simmer for 30 minutes or so, until the chicken is well cooked. In another pan heat the butter and add the apple wedges. Cook until browned and tender. Remove the chicken from the pan and add the crème fraîche to the liquid. Bring to the boil and cook for 5 minutes or so until the sauce is thickened. Season and spoon over the chicken. Garnish with apple wedges.

Ingredients:

• 2 pieces free range chicken breast, sliced
• A little Vegetable oil
• A little Flour
• A little Grated ginger
• 2tbsp Sake (rice wine)
• 4 tbsp dark soy sauce
• Sugar as per taste
• Mixed Green Salad

Method:

Mix sake, soy sauce and sugar in a bowl to make teri-yaki sauce.

Smear the chicken with flour.

Heat a little oil in a frying pan.

Sauté chicken on both sides to a golden finish and remove chicken from the pan.

Remove the left over oil from the pan.

Pour teri-yaki sauce into the pan and heat up to boil.

Simmer chicken well in the pan again on both sides and turn off the heat.

Add grated ginger to garnish.

Serve with salads.

400g (14 oz) chicken breast, minced

1 tablespoon finely chopped shallots

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

2 teaspoons salt (I always use Maldon)

2 tablespoons finely chopped tarragon

200g (7oz) chorizo sausage, diced

2 tablespoons goose fat

Freshly ground black pepper

12 slices smoked bacon rashers, rind removed.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160 C

Combine the diced and minced chicken, shallots, garlic, salt, tarragon, chorizo and goose fat in a bowl.

Mix by hand until fully combined. Season with pepper.

Arrange the bacon slices in a terrine mould (loaf tin) about 2 pints (1 litre) capacity, covering the bottom of the mould evenly, with the ends of the slices hanging over the edges. Put the chicken mix into the mould and pack down using your hands. Fold over the bacon and press it down tightly.

Cover with tin foil. Put the mould into a roasting tray and add water to reach halfway up the side of the mould. Put in the oven to cook for 80 minutes.

Remove from the oven, allow to cool. Put into the fridge with a heavy weight on top of the foil and leave for 24 hours. Turn out, slice and serve with crusty bread.

•500 g Chicken livers

•1 clove garlic chopped

•2 rashers bacon chopped

•50 g butter

•1 onion finely chopped

•2 tbsp chopped parsley

•3 tbsp sherry

•3 bay leaves

•150 g clarified butter

•salt and pepper

Using your large knife, remove the heart from the chicken livers and cut off the white sinews.

Heat a large frying pan. Add the chopped bacon and fry for about a minute.  Add in the  onions and garlic and fry for about another 2 minutes. Add the 50 grams of butter and toss the contents in it.

Add the chopped chicken livers. Stir and fry for 7-10 minutes, tossing occasionally.

Add in the parsley, sherry and season with salt and pepper. Then remove immediately from the heat.  (This is where you can be quite creative and use spices or other seasonings)

Spoon the mixture into a blender and blend until smooth.

Spoon into a bowl and smooth it on the top. Lay decorative bay leaves on the top and then carefully pour over the clarified butter. Set aside to cool for 1 hour if you need to serve it soon. Or you can cover it with cling film and place in the fridge.   Once opened, it will last 2 days.

As with most popular restaurant-y foods that are considered sophisticated, terrines began life as humble French peasant food.  They were a way of using up leftovers and preserving meat.  They provided a hearty meal, could be eaten cold, were handy for transporting in lunch boxes and had a long shelf life.  It was ideal food for French labourers and was perfected by the ordinary French housewife long before chefs got hold of it.  Because of its origins there are thousands of different terrine recipes and once the basics have been grasped, it is also an easy dish to adapt and make your own so feel free to experiment.

I always feel terrine of anything is quite an adult dish and sometimes you have to develop a taste for it.  It can be heavily textured and chunky or smooth and spreadable like many pates.  It can have a mild taste or be quite spicy, herby, meaty and earthy.  Game pate and terrines are, in my view, a particular acquired taste but once you find the T-spot as I like to call it, you won’t look back.  Regular readers will know that I also like to bring my own twist to things and so I have adapted the idea of the terrine to work for accompaniments and desserts as well as being the main event.

While the word terrine is associated with the food it is also the name of the vessel used to create it.  A terrine is a long, relatively shallow, glazed earthenware dish, sometimes covered, but if you have a loaf tin it will work just as well.  The other thing to remember with terrines is that you are working upside down.  When the terrine is turned out what you put in first will be on the top, rather like an upside down cake.  We also want our terrines to be relatively solid so that they will slice well and not disintegrate disappointingly at the mere look of a knife.

So let’s start with an easy one. For a great salad accompaniment and one that makes the buffet table pop, how about a ridiculously easy beetroot jelly terrine.  Lightly spray a loaf tin with oil or line it with cling film.  Take a jar of beetroot and drain.  Line the loaf tin with the beetroot and then make up three quarters of a pint of blackcurrant jelly, with a full 1 pint jelly.  Pour it over the beetroot and leave in the fridge to set overnight.  When you turn this purple wonder out onto a plate it is like a gloriously big shiny jewel in the centre of your buffet spread. (Or you could tell the kids it’s a liquidised Barney; the fantasy of parents everywhere!  I’m just teasing, Barney is great and I have no wish to hurt an inch of his royal purpleness!)   This terrine slices easy and the sweet jelly sets off the beetroot really well as a salad dish.

The same principle can be used with summer fruits and other fruit jelly for a great fresh dessert.  I find the frozen berries work really well for this, but fresh raspberries and strawberries are equally as good.  A few slices of kiwi and grapes also add colour.  Just pour the bag of defrosted berries into the base of the loaf tin or the chopped fresh fruit.  Again make up three quarters of a pint of jelly and pour over the fruit and allow it to set.  By using less water in the jelly the terrines will be less wobbly and will create more solid slices.

When it comes to meat terrines it is all about flavour and making sure you give yourself time to let it all develop.  Some recipes require that you marinate the meat mixture in a wine and herb mixture for at least a day before you cook it.  After cooking there is also the pressing of the terrine to create the solid loaf which can take, in some recipes, another 48 hours.  So you see this is where the time comes in.  You can also be very creative with terrines.  Elegant French restaurants layer herbs decoratively in the meat or put surprises in the centre to create that interesting wow factor when it is sliced.  Traditionally, less expensive meats such as fatty pork or wild game birds such as grouse and partridge were used but these days restaurants are likely to use duck, goose and even fish.  I recently enjoyed a lobster and whiskey terrine as a starter and it was delicious.  Some cooks use chicken and vegetables or even cheese in their terrines.  Finally terrines are usually cooked in a bain-marie.  This is where the loaf tin is put into a roasting tray and hot water (but not boiling) is added around the loaf tin, about half way up.  This keeps the loaf cooking consistently all the way through.

Below is a recipe by Shannon Bennett that I found in his great book My French Vue.  I’ve used this recipe countless times and it always works out well.  If it’s your first attempt then stick to the ingredient list but as you gain more confidence you can always adapt the ingredients according to taste or, indeed, whim. 

 Chicken Terrine

600g (1lb 5oz) chicken thigh meat, diced

400g (14 oz) chicken breast, minced

1 tablespoon finely chopped shallots

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

2 teaspoons salt (I always use Maldon)

2 tablespoons finely chopped tarragon

200g (7oz) chorizo sausage, diced

2 tablespoons goose fat

Freshly ground black pepper

12 slices smoked bacon rashers, rind removed.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160 C

Combine the diced and minced chicken, shallots, garlic, salt, tarragon, chorizo and goose fat in a bowl.

Mix by hand until fully combined.  Season with pepper.

 Arrange the bacon slices in a terrine mould (loaf tin) about 2 pints (1 litre) capacity, covering the bottom of the mould evenly, with the ends of the slices hanging over the edges.  Put the chicken mix into the mould and pack down using your hands.  Fold over the bacon and press it down tightly.

Cover with tin foil.  Put the mould into a roasting tray and add water to reach halfway up the side of the mould.  Put in the oven to cook for 80 minutes.

Remove from the oven, allow to cool.  Put into the fridge with a heavy weight on top of the foil and leave for 24 hours.  Turn out, slice and serve with crusty bread.

Now I love pate, what a difference a decade or two makes.  When hunting for a quick late night snack it can be very satisfying to take a packet of crackers, a hunk of pate and a glass of wine or port, if possible, and indulge.  If I feel like cooking I might even go to the bother of making toast. 

My mind was changed as a student when I encountered a French girl who was in Ireland to improve her English.  When she suggested that pate was one of her favourite foods I found myself nodding in agreement and suggesting that I would be willing to share some.  Given her honeyed tones, olive skin and the heavily accented English, had she suggested that fried cats’ testicles were her pleasure I would probably have agreed to try those too and offered to harvest some for her!  Yes, men really are such simple, fickle creatures.  Fortunately her obsession was with meat pate.  Being the son of a butcher I had an endless supply of the main ingredients.  Looking back I wonder if I should feel used in that maybe she only wanted me for my meat.  Whatever the case, my taste buds truly benefited in the exchange and I developed a taste for pate.  I often look back fondly on those days of cheap port consumed with exquisite pate on Jacobs cream crackers while sitting on the floor listening to some awful French pop singer on a tinny cassette player.  I wish I could tell you they were beautiful moments of youthful trysts with legendary French singers providing the score to these epicurean pleasures but it was the complete opposite.  However, the lessons in pate making may as well have been from Raymond Blanc himself.  What this girl could do with a two ring burner, an old frying pan and a tiny fridge were quite remarkable.

As with many such encounters of youth I have long lost touch with the person but her pate making lessons never left me.  It is a skill I have always enjoyed having and particularly as it was learned and acquired in such pleasant circumstances.  I regularly buy artisan pates but every now and then I indulge in making one of my own.  Molded up in pretty dishes, pate makes a great food gift. If you perfect the art of pate making and create a good recipe you might even find the odd person requesting it.

So what makes a fine pate?  Well I have long since dispensed with the idea that there is such a thing as a perfect pate.  Cake baking is an absolute science, mess with the basics and your cake will either turn out brick like and hard or too soft and will sink and crumble.  Pate making on the other hand is of a much more robust nature.  It allows and accommodates creative freestyle ingredient choosing.  Pate can be as fancy or as plain as you like and most are much easier to prepare than you might expect.  You can also use different alcohols from brandy and champagne to port and sherry.  Just free your imagination and your taste buds will truly appreciate the effort.  And don’t be afraid to experiment with the crackers either. The inspiration for this article came while working last Saturday one of my customers was telling me how hard it was to get chicken livers and this is true.  I was delighted to be able to tell her that available all the time at James Whelan Butchers we have 1lb tubs of frozen chicken liver if you ask any of the butchers.

 Try something new this week. I always welcome you comments and feedback.

Chicken Liver Pate

•500 g Chicken livers

•1 clove garlic chopped

•2 rashers bacon chopped

•50 g butter

•1 onion finely chopped

•2 tbsp chopped parsley

•3 tbsp sherry

•3 bay leaves

•150 g clarified butter

•salt and pepper

Using your large knife, remove the heart from the chicken livers and cut off the white sinews.

Heat a large frying pan. Add the chopped bacon and fry for about a minute.  Add in the  onions and garlic and fry for about another 2 minutes. Add the 50 grams of butter and toss the contents in it.

Add the chopped chicken livers. Stir and fry for 7-10 minutes, tossing occasionally.

Add in the parsley, sherry and season with salt and pepper. Then remove immediately from the heat.  (This is where you can be quite creative and use spices or other seasonings)

Spoon the mixture into a blender and blend until smooth.

Spoon into a bowl and smooth it on the top. Lay decorative bay leaves on the top and then carefully pour over the clarified butter. Set aside to cool for 1 hour if you need to serve it soon. Or you can cover it with cling film and place in the fridge.   Once opened, it will last 2 days.