Chicken Liver and Winter Truffle Parfait

I love a bit of pate or as this is parfait. This recipe would be cracking for Christmas Day and you can keep it in the fridge for 3-4 days before. I massively underestimated how much mix id made and ended top filling 10 small 125ml Kilner Jars but you can always give some away as a gift.

You will need:

600g Chicken Livers (all sinew or discoloured bits removed)

500ml Milk

4 tsp Salt

150ml Red Wine or Port

50ml Brandy or Cognac

450g Unsalted Butter (melted and kept warm)

1 Truffle (approx 20g)

80g Shallots

5 Eggs

1 1/2 Cloves of Garlic

White Pepper

To Finish:

150g Softened Butter

Grated Truffle

1. Once you have cleaned the chicken livers place them in a bowl of milk with 1 teaspoon of salt for around 30 minutes to draw out some of the blood.
2. Meanwhile finely chop the shallots and garlic and place in a pan with the wine and brandy. Cook gently until the liquid has reduced by about half and the onions are soft.
3. Pre heat the oven to 130 degrees.
4. Melt 450g of butter in a pan and keep warm.
5. Rinse off the livers then place in a blender with the onions and around 3/4 of your truffle. You will need to keep some to finish the parfait. Season with around 2 tsp of salt and a good pinch of white pepper then blitz for 2-3 minutes. As it blends add one egg at a time then slowly pour in the melted butter until fully incorporated
6. Once blended you then need to pass the mixture through a fine sieve to ensure you have a smooth parfait.
7. Fill each of the jars leaving around 1cm gap to the top. Place each jar in a large deep sided baking tray with the lids open then pour boiling water in the tray so it fills around 1/3 of the way up the jar.
8. Cover the tray with a double layer of tin foil then place in the oven for 35 minutes at 130 degrees. If you can’t fit all the jars in just cook them in 2 batches.
9. Once cooked remove from the tray and sit on a kitchen bench to cool for around 30 minutes. If you have a thermometer test the parfaits as soon as they come out of the oven to a temperature of 60 degrees. If they are any less pop back in the oven for a couple of minutes.
10. Pop the parfaits in the fridge for a further 20 minutes to firm up further while you melt some butter.
11. Pour around 1/2 cm of butter over the parfaits then grate over a little truffle then pop them back in the fridge with the lids open until the butter has set fully.
12. Before you want to serve them take them out of the fridge for around 20 minutes. Serve with your favourite toasted bread.

Enjoy!