French Style Pate (Easy Microwave Fix)

Submitted by twissis

"When we go to the U.S. ea yr & visit *SusieQusie* in Dallas, we always go to *Half Price Books* & I usually find a cookbook treasure on the clearance table. This yr it was a little jewel titled *Microwave Cooking* by Lorna Rhodes & it had some great recipes to help me (us) use our microwave to its full potential. I’m really into that now as it’s fast, gives you an “extra oven” that doesn’t heat up your kitchen & helps relieve the stress of entertaining. This is the 1st recipe from it I will enter & it combines the starter & salad courses or stands alone as a luncheon entrée if served as suggested. (This is fixed the day b4 intended use & time does not include chilling overnight) *Enjoy* !"

 

• Ready In: 25mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Yields: 6 Slices
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 8 slices streaky bacon
• 1 ounce butter
• 8 ounces chicken livers (chopped)
• 8 ounces ground pork
• 4 ounces ground sausage
• 1 garlic clove (crushed)
• 1 tablespoon sherry wine
• 1 teaspoon mixed herbs (chopped)
• grated nutmeg (pinch of)
• salt & pepper (to taste)
• 3 bay leaves

directions

1. Lay the bacon rashers flat on a cutting board & stretch w/the back of a knife. Use half of the bacon to line a 1 lb microwave safe loaf pan or terrine.
2. Combine the chicken livers, grd pork & sausage meat in a bowl. Cover & cook on HIGH for 6 minutes or till the meats are fully cooked, stirring twice during cooking.
3. Transfer mixture to a blender or food proc. Add the next 5 ingredients (garlic thru salt & pepper) & mix till smooth.
4. Spoon the mixture into your prepared pan or terrine & cover w/the remaining bacon. Place 3 bay leaves on top, cover w/greaseproof paper & cook on HIGH for 4 minutes. Allow pate to cool. Cover w/foil, weight down & chill overnight.
5. TO SERVE: Remove bay leaves, turn out onto a serving plate & slice. Serve w/French bread & a green salad.
6. NOTE: While the recipe doesn’t say to do this & I haven't made this dish, I will drain the cooked meat mixture of the rendered fat as the bacon will add flavor & moistness in the final cooking stage.

Reviews

[An_Net]

I decided to make this for Aussie Recipe Swap #13 as I'm a microwave phobic!!! I did change the recipe slightly. I decided to use the bacon in the meat mixture instead of the ground sausage and I used port instead of sherry wine. I lined the loaf pan with clingwrap. Butter is listed in the ingredients but not in the method instructions. I'm assuming you grease the loaf pan if using the bacon. I drained the meat of the rendered fat as suggested and I'm very glad I did. The timing was perfect for my 1200w microwave. I weighted the mixture with 2 440gr tins and found it pressed beautifully. I'll use this recipe again to make pate rather than the bain marie method. Wow this has inspired me to look at other microwave recipes.

 

[French Tart]

LOVELY and SO easy, thanks Mary Pat!! I made ONE small change - I thought that bacon would not be crisp enough around the outside, with it being microwaved, so I chopped it up to ADDED it to the pate mixture! I followed your tip and drained the meat, GOOD tip and it worked perfectly. A VERY nice flavour and good a "tight" texture - you MUST weigh it down overnight however. A perfectionist MIGHT say that to make a pate in the microwave is a crime - I DISAGREE.....it is so EASY, convenient and it uses LESS energy - and the pate was SO moist as well! To try and make this into a SPECIAL starter, I then unmoulded my pate today and had a play for Valentine's Day Dinner tomorrow!! I cut it into slices and then PRESSED heart shape slices out of it - served it on a lovely antique plate with: thin slices of toasted granary bread triangles, salad, cornichons and garnished it with a Tomato Rose!! (The ROSE is for Valentine's as well as the hearts!) Next time I make this, I think I may add a slug of Cognac instead of the Sherry and also, a good idea may be to UP the garlic by a clove or two at the most! If using fresh herbs, I think 1 tablespoon would be nice as well. Made for Holiday Tag, and a recipe that I will making again MP - lovely!! FT:-)