Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

hope you drank proper vintage port and not the usual LBV rubbish ..... i've still got far far too much of the vintage stuff, even though i sold some last year

rain has stopped here (due west of london) and i believe forecast to be brighter later .... still no golf, so shall do some cooking so i can write up some recipes for my local fishmonger/butcher

It was a good one, decanted and all that jazz - never the less, it, still in copious amounts gives one the head from hell. One never learns. Uggg!!!! You will have to send me some recipies some time.

i have about 30 fish recipes that i can send you - they all work too!

the guy has now asked me to do some meat recipes for him,. so the first is chicken liver pate, followed by one for home-made baked beans to accompany a couple of versions of roasted belly pork


with regard to vintage port, it always helps to have eaten very well ...... also, the lighter ports like sandemans, croft and warre's are likely to be less damaging than the heavyweights like taylors and grahams

Spectacular chicken liver pate - onion/brandy/port/or red wine/garlic/butter/fresh cream at the end and blend. Chill and enjoy. Port Head still not good. Ha!

Sorry, but yours is close to a parfait, and to my taste, far too rich (and sickly)

I'll clutter up the place and c+p my version here - it takes a bare 30 minutes to make from start to finish ......



You will need in the following order -
Food processor
Frying pan with lid or at the very least a splatter thingy

2 x 40 gm Butter
2 Medium onions thinly sliced
2 Large and plump cloves of garlic – squished with a knife and finely chopped
1½ tsp Thyme – dried is fine
400 gm Chicken livers – preferably organic and definitely not frozen!
2 tsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp Chili – Waitrose Crushed Chili is fine, but fresh is better with a different kick
Big glug Brandy or black rum, the latter giving a sweeter finish
Salt + pepper

Melt one of the slabs of butter and add the onions.
Cook over a gentle to medium heat, ideally with a lid on, for about 10 minutes, then add the thyme and garlic.
Cook for a further 5 minutes or until the onions are thoroughly soft.
The onions should be cooked through but still translucent and not coloured – that way they add considerable moisture to the end result.
Tip the whole lot into the processor bowl.

Put the pan back on the hob and melt the second slab of butter.
Add the chicken livers, put on the lid (or cover with the splatter thingy) and turn up the heat.
The livers will splatter and spit, so you have been warned!
Turn the livers occasionally so they cook through evenly, but still slightly pink in the middle, as otherwise they will tend to be a bit dry.
After about 4/5 minutes, add the mustard and chili.
Mix it about and then add the brandy (or rum) and keep stirring.
The mustard acts as a thickening agent.
Let the liquid boil for a couple of minutes to cook off the raw spirit and to reduce it all by say half.
Add salt and pepper.

Tip into the processor bowl and whizz away for just a couple of minutes.
You’ll need to stop a couple of times to scrape away bits from the side.

And that’s it – all finished!
Just scrape into a bowl; let it cool a little and then cover and pop it in the fridge.
You can eat within an hour or two, but as so often, it will be much better the following day.

Spread on toast or crackers and don’t all fight over it!

Assuming you don’t demolish it all in a single sitting, it’ll keep for a further 2 or 3 days in the fridge.


And don’t forget to open a decent bottle of Cru Beaujolais – say a Fleurie or Côte de Brouilly.
The 2010s are terrific if you can still find them.

Sorry cynic, but I am renowned for my Pate. Have you ever made brawn?

nevertheless, try the one above and see what you think.
it's certainly much better if you can get organic chix livers, and it would be an interesting experiment to make it with duck livers

never tried to make brawn
i rather like it, but Beloved might not be too keen on having a whole pig's head in the house, let alone cooked there too!

jambon persille i am allowed to do, even if it does steam out the kitchen for hours!
my butcher smokes his own hocks (also does his bacon and haddock etc etc) and they are not only very flavoursome, but also exceedingly good value

What a lucky girl your beloved is.

3m,

Mother-in-law used to make brawn with pig's head and Trotters.

(Those were the days when mother-in-laws were really mother-in-laws.)

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I cheat and make in with Trotters and Belly pork, it is easier than picking the meat out of the head and the balance of jelly to meat is easier to balance.

Haven't done it for a long time.

(But have learned to cheat a little and more often now, for long low temperature cooking,, use a pressure cooker, it is getting the times approximate is the problem.)

---------
(I never seen and an inorganic chicken or the liver of one. Do they have feathers.)

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After the tennis is over, going to make spring rolls out of yesterdays Pork and Sauerkraut.

And by the way I can give you 10 years.

So juniors behave.

Okay dad promise to behave.

Actually WW2 broke out after I was born and my father told me that my birth was responsible for it.

9-)

he'ld have commanded you to vote too!

==============

chickens - organic or otherwise

Though battery farming is now a thing of the past, or at least it is in europe, even the tag of "free range" can be something of a misnomer.

the colour of raw chicken livers is the giveaway ..... organic ones tend to be plumper, but more to the point are a rich maroon, whereas the bog standard chicken livers you see in most supermarkets are several shades paler, and certainly lack the flavour.

non-organic chickens certainly lack guts, and probably feathers too!

Actually, he had a similar opinion as you seem to have, and at the time he gave it, I was swayed by his "feelings" and didn't really questioned it. It is only later I realised it was just another cliché. Also, realise the statement was related to his past experiences.)

(Mind, also one of his nicknames was, War Department -------- and arguments could be very brief.)

Chickens, your taste buds are possibly more perceptive than mine.

(As a child we kept chickens and I had the job of collecting the eggs and catching one for the pot and )

.

can see you're older and that dementia has set in .... you've double-posted yet again!

confess i didn't used to vote, but was persuaded of the error of my ways by my late father-in-law ..... lovely chap

as for chickens and beef - and ditto potatoes and carrots - i bet even you with your depleted and dilapidated taste buds would readily taste the difference between standard supermarket fare and properly reared and well-hung(!!) beef and chicken .... i believe chicken is best left to "dry cure" for a few days

3m - do you know the answer to that one?

Cyn,

You are as charming as per usual.

One of the signs of dementia is becoming less inhibited and the onset can be seen in some at an earlier age than in others.

This leads to a state of over-valuation of self and insensitivity to others and the surrounding.

Sometimes, such individuals, if they recognise the symptoms are able to modify their responses.

Others are trapped in their patterns of behaviour and remain oblivious.

Just an observation or thought.

But, I do recognise the development my own slight imperfections.

Hope you chicken liver pate is the right colour.

pinkish of course ..... i dare say with mould it might go blue and woolly, which could then be fed to the favoured few

getting back to the eu debate, i re-post 20749 which, despite fred getting very hot hot under the collar re some of the phrasing (i make no apology), i think brings the issue back into focus, and it would be good to hear the views of others ....

"getting back to renegotiating the treaty with EU ......

i find it very interesting that even germany is supporting the idea of a robust debate on this very serious issue.

whereas the likes of germany, france and others are unable for both psychological and political reasons, to be critical of the treaty as it stands, the uk, because of its long history of vocal dissent, can easily take up that cudgel ...... this then gives the other countries an excuse to bow to at least some of the uk demands, using the excuse of "reluctant, but in the interests of continued unity"

when it comes to a referendum - let's hope the question is put sensibly for once! - i suspect that if there are no concessions at all, then i shall vote "out", though the arguments at the time may lead me to vote differently

the "great unwashed" will almost certainly vote "out" but without having really thought it all through ..... as my late father-in-law said back in 1973, "they're only interested in what will happen to the price of butter"

"while others will think of the depth of their pockets."
===============.

If, which I doubt, Cameron is doing the "negotiating", then he will "blink".
-------------------------

But the hype at the moment about "negotiations" is again PR for his own party's consumption.

Review of treaties, pacts, regulations, rules etc. are due for review, reconsider in 2015 as one would expect.

My personal feelings are the UK needs the EU more than the EU needs the UK.
Going into negotiations tub thumping, usually ends up with the participants leaving with empty hands.

My guess that the UK will be still be in the EU which will be more fiscally and politically integrated.

But name specifically which rules, or regulations you would like to change, or consider “unfair” to the “UK”.

Also, which groups are likely to benefit from the changes, or moderation.

It is strange, that many, who wish to “break away” from the “EU”, wish to keep Britain “united” in spite of it consisting of four different nationalities.

(Using the same and opposite arguments.)
-----------


PS.

You could always take a bath!

on the face of it, you may be right about UK needing EU more than the reverse ..... however, i think it is a bit more subtle than that ..... i think that most of the major players (countries) recognise that there are swathes of regulations and rules and allowances that are in need of radical overhaul, and with the uk battling on that front, they can accept at least some changes while masquerading that it is all in the cause of retaining unity ..... of course, the MEPs won't want to do anything that will upset their fat personal budgets and allowances, any more than local gov't will accept that cuts could and should mean removal of many of its plush offices and layers of over-manned bureaucracy

obvious and easy targets will be fishing quotas, restrictive work hours and with luck, restriction of some of the freedom of movement to work nonsense (aka immigration as of right) and some of the excessive interference by European courts

without actually doing anything, the major countries can very easily agree to hold talks about talks about all/any of the above issues and others .... that will create an illusion of some acceptance to reform and all country leaders can go home with something that is easily sold to their voters

if Cameron can come home with some actual meat on the bones, albeit that it may be a bit peripheral or even ephemeral, then he can pursue with reasonable justification his campaign to keep UK within EU

EU really cannot afford UK to pull out, for all sorts of good and psychological reasons .... you only have to look at the economic pandemonium that ensued when it was suggested that greece, let alone portugal, spain and ireland as well, would need to be expelled


i know the above is pretty simplistic, but it's good as i can do quickly and without breaking my self-imposed rules on brevity