Chicken Liver Pâté with Crispy Herbs

Ingredients

• 100 ml heavy cream
• 0.5 tsp thyme
• 1 egg
• 300 g chicken liver
• 1 tsp Armagnac
• Salt
• black pepper (freshly ground)
• nutmeg
• marjoram
• 0.5 tsp rosemary (finely chopped)
• 200 g Flour
• 50 g grated cheese (e.g., aged Gouda)
• 0.5 tsp Salt
• black pepper (freshly ground)
• 0.25 lemon (unprocessed)
• 25 g butter
• 2 small eggs
• 1 tbsp sour cream
• 1 tbsp white wine
• 4 tbsp mixed herbs (e.g., rosemary, thyme, marjoram, oregano)
• oil or clarified butter for frying

Instructions

1. 1.

   Preheat the oven to 175 °C. Prepare a deep pan as a water bath for the oven.

2. 2.

   Whisk together heavy cream, thyme and egg; set aside cold.

3. 3.

   Clean the liver, remove any sinews, cut into pieces, season, mix with Armagnac and chill. Once both are well chilled, puree the liver in a blender, optionally strain through a sieve, combine with the cream‑egg mixture, season sharply. Spoon the filling into ramekins, place them on the water‑bath pan, cover with foil and bake for about 35 minutes. Let the crème cool thoroughly.

4. 4.

   For the fried herbs mix flour, cheese, salt, pepper and grated lemon zest. Cut in butter. Add eggs, sour cream, white wine and herbs; whisk quickly into a smooth dough. Roll out to ~3 mm thickness and cut strips with a pastry cutter.

5. 5.

   Heat enough oil so the strips can "float" and fry them until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and serve alongside the liver crème.