Pork Pate Recipe Nigella Food

RICH PORK PâTé

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4. Run the liver under cold water, then trim, removing any tough membrane. Chop roughly. Heat half the butter in a pan and gently cook the onion and garlic for about 8 minutes until starting to soften. Transfer to a bowl. Heat the remaining butter and fry the liver and bacon for 5-6 minutes until golden. Set aside to cool.
• Increase the heat and deglaze the pan: add the Madeira and bubble, stirring, until the pan residue is released. Tip into the bowl with the onion. Add the sage, parsley, cayenne, breadcrumbs, white pepper and a good pinch of salt. Mix well.
• In a food processor, pulse the pork belly with the cooled liver and bacon until finely chopped, giving a textured but not too coarse pâté. Transfer to the mixing bowl and mix with the other ingredients. Fold through the pistachio kernels.
• After testing the flavour, divide evenly among 4 x 200ml sterilised Kilner jars (see tips on sterilising, below), gently pressing down and smoothing over the top. Lay a bay leaf on top of each and clip the Kilner jars closed.
• Put the Kilner jars in a deep roasting tin and pour in boiling water to come halfway up the jars' sides. Cook in the oven for about 1¼ hours until the pâté begins to shrink away from the sides of the jars. Remove from the roasting tin and leave to cool. Once cold, you can refrigerate the pâté for up to 1 week. Maturing it for a few days allows the flavours to mingle and develop. Remove the pâté from the fridge 15 minutes before serving, to allow it to reach room temperature.

BEER BRAISED PORK KNUCKLES WITH CARAWAY, GARLIC, APPLES AND POTATOES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Put the salt and caraway seeds into a bowl, mince or grate in the garlic, and stir to combine. Add the pork knuckles and rub them well with the caraway mixture, getting it into the slits in the rind where it was scored.
• Peel the onions and slice them into rounds and add them to the bottom of a roasting tin, making a bed or platform. Sit the knuckles on top of the onions and cook them for 30 minutes.
• Take the tin out of the oven and quickly arrange the apples and potatoes around the knuckles. Carefully pour 1 cup of the beer over the knuckles, so they are basted as the liquid pours into the tin. Put the pan back into the oven. Lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees F and roast for 2 hours.
• Turn the oven up again to 425 degrees F, and baste the hocks with the remaining beer. Roast for 30 minutes more.
• Remove the tin from the oven and transfer the apples and potatoes to a warmed serving dish. Lift the knuckles onto a carving board and leave the onion and juices in the tin. Put the tin on the stove over medium heat and add 2 cups boiling water, stirring to deglaze the pan to make a gravy. Transfer the gravy to a serving bowl.
• Take the crackling off the knuckles and break it into pieces, then add them to a serving bowl. Pull or carve the pork meat and add it to the bowl with the crackling. Serve with the apples, potatoes, gravy and some German mustard.
• Make Ahead Note:
• The pork and onions can be put in roasting tin up to 1 day ahead. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Just before cooking, rub with the salt, caraway and garlic and cook as directed.
• Making leftovers right:
• Leftover pork can be stored in the refrigerator, tightly wrapped in aluminum foil, for up to 3 days. Eat it cold or reheat gently in a saucepan with leftover gravy, until piping hot. You should store any leftover gravy in a separate airtight container in the in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 days.
• Leftover pork can be frozen for up to 2 months, tightly wrapped in foil, then defrosted overnight in the refrigerator. Even if you have an amount too small to be useful by itself (a likely outcome), simply bag and mark it up and freeze it for future use in the Pantry Paella recipe.

LOIN OF PORK WITH BAY LEAVES

Steps:

• In a small bowl mix the olive oil, garlic, salt, peppercorns, and crumbled bay leaves and rub the mixture all over the meat. Put the pork on a large dish or in a large plastic bag and cover the dish or tie up the bag and leave in the refrigerator if you've got steeping time; otherwise - if you're about to start cooking it - just leave it out.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a roasting pan with the onion. Strew over the onion 10 whole bay leaves. Place the pork, including its marinade, on top and the bones all around, if they fit and if you've got them. Roast in the oven for about 1 3/4 hours or to an internal temperature of 150 to 155 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, basting regularly.
• Remove the pork, scraping burnt bits off, to a plate or carving board and let it sit. On the stove at moderate heat, pour the wine and 1/2 cup boiling water over the bones, bay, garlic, and onion. Let it bubble up and reduce by about a third, and then remove the bones gingerly and strain the liquid contents into a saucepan. Heat, correct the seasoning, and add liquid as you like to make a good, thin, not-quite gravy.
• Carve the loin, put the slices on a big warmed plate, sprinkle with salt, and pour over a little of the juice-gravy, then tent with foil and leave in the turned-off oven while you eat the starter. It is a bit prinky, I know, but it will look fabulous if, when you take it out, you arrange, Napoleonically, some more bay leaves around the edges of the dish with the bay-scented pork.