Paté

Ingredients:

1 pound of Chicken Livers
1/2 pound of butter (this is NOT a low cholesterol recipe :-)
1 large white onion
10 - 12 button mushrooms or equivalent volume of other 'shrooms
2 cloves of garlic
3 tbsp of dried basil
2 oz of cognac

If you and your pals aren't so fond of chicken liver, reduce the livers to 1/2 lb; use 1/2 lb of ground pork; reduce butter to 1/4 lb. This will create a looser, softer pate that isn't as liver-tasting.

Directions:

In a big thick pot, melt the butter; add finely chopped onion, garlic, and mushrooms. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add chicken livers... when they're starting to cook, add the cognac, black pepper and basil. Cook until the chicken livers are just pink on the inside (yes, you'll need to slice one open). Most of the cognac should have evaporated or been absorbed by the ingredients.

Remove from heat, run through food processor. The longer you process, the smoother the pate will be. Put in a container & refrigerate. If you want to unmold, grease the container first or use plastic wrap inside the container.

Notes:

Once upon a time, I tried to create a pate that tasted very much of garlic. I wasn't able to succeed; however, my roommate and I could vouch for the fact that, although 7 cloves of garlic in a pate might not taste very garlicky initially, you'll burp it for hours later. Much better to increase herbs or mushrooms. If you increase mushrooms, make sure you cook them long enough to cook most of the water out of them, or you will end up with a very watery pate after you process it.

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