Brinjal, Garlic and Sweet Red Pepper Paté

Serve this Italian-style chunky, garlicky paté of smoky brinjal and peppers on a bed of salad leaves, accompanied with crisp toast or savoury biscuits. Baking the ingredients gives this pate a wonderful smoky flavour. Use orange, yellow or green peppers in place of the red ones if you aren’t wanting too strong a pepper flavour. If you prefer a totally smooth pate, instead of chopping the peppers, add them with the peppercorns and coriander to the blender with the brinjal and garlic. The pate may not look as colourful, but it will taste just as good.

Ingredients:

3 brinjals (aubergines)

2 sweet red peppers

5 cloves garlic

7.5ml pink (or green) peppercorns in brine, drained and crushed

30ml chopped fresh coriander

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200˚C. Arrange the whole brinjals, peppers and garlic cloves on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the garlic and set aside. Turn over the brinjals and peppers and return them to the oven. Continue to bake them for a further 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel the garlic cloves and place them in a blender.

Remove the charred peppers from the oven and place them in a plastic zip-lock bag. Set aside to cool. Return the brinjals to the oven and bake for a further 10 minutes.

Split each brinjal in half and scoop out the flesh into a sieve placed over a bowl. Discard the skins. Press the flesh with a spoon to remove the bitter juices, which can be discarded. Add the brinjal flesh to the garlic in the blender and process until smooth. Put the mixture in a bowl.

Skin, core and seed the peppers and finely chop the flesh. Stir the peppers into the brinjal mixture. Mix in the peppercorns and chopped coriander and blend thoroughly. Spoon into a serving dish and serve immediately.

Christmas Turkey Paté

My family are not very fond of turkey,

so I had to find a way to include it in our Christmas dinner.

This is my way of having turkey without all the fuss of having to cook a whole bird.

This meat mixture can be used to make great turkey burgers.

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Ingredients:

175g chopped chicken livers

125ml milk

100g raisins

125ml sherry

thigh meat from a turkey, skin removed, cut from the bone and chopped into small dice

350g belly pork, cut in small dice

175 g un-smoked bacon, cut in small dice

100g pure pork fat, cut in small dice

1 onion, finely chopped

sea salt and white pepper to season

100g white bread crumbs

5ml mixed spice

5ml french herb mix

30ml chopped fresh parsley

75ml brandy or whiskey

1 egg

24 rashers of streaky bacon

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Method:

Soak the chicken livers in milk for an hour or two, or overnight. The calcium in the milk helps to remove the toxins and bitterness from the livers.

Soak the raisins in sherry for an hour or two, or put them in the microwave for 30 seconds on high and leave for a few minutes for the raisins to plump up and the mix to cool.

Drain the sherry from the raisins if there is any left into the onions and sweat the onions in a dry pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the turkey meat, belly pork, un-smoked bacon, pork fat and chicken livers.

Put the meats through a mincer or pulse them in a kitchen blender. Do not make the mix too smooth.

Season liberally with sea salt and ground white pepper.

Add the onions, raisins, bread crumbs, spice, herbs, brandy and egg and mix well, using your hands to macerate the mixture. Once mixed, fold with a wooden spoon. The mixture should take on a firm texture. Put the mixture in the fridge for about half an hour to firm up well.

Line an 8 inch round cake tin with stretched streaky bacon in a radial pattern, almost half of the length hanging over the side of the tin. Fill the centre with meat mixture and fold in the ends of the bacon rashers over the top.

Put a fitting circle of baking paper (a cartouche) over the top, and place a small plate that fits inside the baking tin over the paper. Cover the baking tin with foil and make a rolled seal in the foil.

Bake in a hot oven for about 90 minutes.

Just before serving, turn out on a baking tray and put under the grill to crisp the top of the bacon covering.

Serve in wedges as a substitute for stuffing.

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