Decadent chicken liver pâté with hanepoot-sultana chutney

Our annual Karoo Writers’ Festival in the Eastern Cape Karoo always sees me playing one role or another, whether interviewing the likes of Des Lindberg or Sally Andrew, but this year they asked everyone to have lunch with me at the Victoria Manor Hotel, the festival venue. I dedicated it to my beloved friend and heroine, Sandra Antrobus.

It was a three-course lunch, with me telling little foodie tales in between courses, such as the story of how ‘vindaloo’ started out as vinha d’alhos in Portugal, then went to Goa to become vindaloo, and eventually ended up on the British High Street as the ‘hot curry’. Which means it passed the Cape of Good Hope, twice. It’s a fascinating story and I wrote about it here. Oh, and tempura, which evolved from the Portuguese temperar, to eat, after Portuguese Catholic missionaries to Japan brought with them the European method of coating food in flour before frying. Portugal also introduced chillies to Goa, and therefore to India. Seems they caught on.

The pâté I started out with was meant to be rustic, but the more I worked it, the more refined it became, and by the time I stirred some neat Cointreau into the blended end product, it was pretty decadent. Funny: when I tasted it once it was complete, I wasn’t quite happy with the flavour and texture. But then I reminded myself that this will always be the case with a warm pâté that still needs to chill and firm up. 

Next morning was another story. Better than any other chicken liver pâté I’ve made, which is why I decided to set it down here. I owe a nod of warm thanks to chef Maswazandile ‘Maswazi’ Mabusela, who piped it so beautifully onto plates and draped my sultana chutney around it. Pure style.

We went on to a main course of venison fynvleis pie (or wildspastei), which Maswazi cooked beautifully, and ended with my recipe for Japie se Gunsteling orange pudding, also cooked by Maswazi. We must always be grateful for and humbled by applause, which there was. And which must be shared with Chef Maswazi.

Tony’s rustic chicken liver pâté with hanepoot-sultana chutney

(Makes about 1 kg)

Ingredients

200 g butter

3 rosemary sprigs to infuse the butter

2 medium onions, very finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, smashed

200 g streaky bacon, cooked till crisp in an air fryer and finely chopped

500 g chicken livers

1 tsp ground coriander (finely ground seeds, not leaves)

2 Tbsp brandy

100 ml cream

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Cointreau

Method

Cook the bacon rashers in an air fryer until super crisp. When cooled, chop the bacon into tiny pieces. Reserve the bacon fat from the air fryer. 

Melt 200 g butter in a heavy pot. Add the rosemary sprigs and simmer, moving the rosemary around the butter, for about three minutes. Remove the rosemary and discard.

Pour or scoop the air fryer bacon fat into the pan, and cook the onions in it with the garlic, until very soft but not golden.

Add the chicken livers to the pan, along with the ground coriander and chopped bacon, and cook for 3 minutes or so. The livers should be a little pink in the middle.

Pour the brandy over and flame. Pour in the cream, stir well, and cook for 2 minutes. Season with salt and ground black pepper to taste. 

Blend until the mixture is smooth, add a good glug of Cointreau, stir it through thoroughly, and spoon into ramekins. Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate. Or do what Maswazi did: store it in the fridge in one container, and pipe it onto plates through a piping bag nozzle.

Sultana and red onion hanepoot chutney

Ingredients

Oil

3 red onions, finely chopped

750 g sultanas

2 star anise

2 bay leaves

Hanepoot

Method

Soak 750 g sultanas in enough hanepoot (fortified wine) to cover. Let it stand for four hours or overnight.

Cook onions in a little oil until soft and golden. Remove star anise and bay.

Add the sultanas and the hanepoot wine they have macerated in. 

Simmer gently for about half an hour until it becomes a nice relish and begins to become darker in places. Stir often so that all of the sultanas come into contact with the bottom of the pot. It’s caramelisation rather than burning. 

Cool and refrigerate, covered, until needed.

Serve the pâté with the chutney and crusty bread. DM

Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Writer 2023, jointly with TGIFood columnist Anna Trapido. Order his book, foodSTUFF, here

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.