Our hostesses this month, Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie of a The Chocolate Bunny, chose delicious pate with freshly baked bread as their June Daring Cook’s challenge! They’ve provided us with 4 different pate recipes to choose from and are allowing us to go wild with our homemade bread choice.
I used to make pâté quite a bit many years ago, but have not made any for quite a while, so I was looking forward to this challenge. I chose the pork and liver recipe and actually followed it to the letter (not something I am usually very good at!) I have a real French pâté baking enameled pan that I almost gave away a couple years ago but then thought better of it. The thick cast iron really bakes the pate slowly, and the narrow shape is perfect, so I am glad I relented when I was in one of my get rid of clutter phases. This was the first time I tried a liver and pork combination. It is absolutely scrumptions. The spicing seemed a little light when I read the recipe, however due to the slow cooking and letting it mellow in the fridge for a day, the flavours are really subtle and quite delicious. The other good thing is that there is no wheat in it. Unfortunately wheat is often present in bought pâté, so this was a bonus as well. The recipe is here at Daring Bakers http://thedaringkitchen.com/sites/default/files/u11/14_Pate_and_Bread_-_June_2010.pdf
For the bread, due to gluten free needs for my hubbie I developed a recipe that was good as bread, but even better as crackers when they were twice baked like biscotti. They came out so good that I also developed a wheat based version from another recipe, and frankly I can’t stop eating them. The crispy initial bite is followed by the mellow taste of wheat and a hint of rosemary. So, both recipes are here for you following this post. This made a lot of pâté, so now I am trying an experiment – how does pâté freeze?
Recipes
Savory Gluten Free Parmesan Crisps
I developed this recipe starting with the concept in a recipe in a cookbook called Grazing by Julie Van Rosendaal to go with a Daring Cooks pate challenge. It is very good as a quick bread right out of the oven, but also wonderful as a cracker or crisp if thinly sliced and baked again to dry. They are sort of like Raincoast Crisps, a popular but very expensive west coast cracker sold in Canada.
| Ingredients | Method |
Dry Ingredients:
|
Combine dry ingredients. The total flour is 1 cup, so you can try other combinations.
Whisk the ingredients to distribute all the stuff. |
Wet ingredients:
|
Add wet ingredients and mix a stiff batter. Put in oiled small loaf pans then wet your gingers and push the sides of the batter down so the center is mounded up like a loaf. |
| Bake at 350, the time depends on the size of your pan, mine were very small load pans and they took about 15 – 20 minutes. If making crisps, allow to cool, in fact even put the loaves in the freezer for a little while. Then slice into 1/8 inch pieces and arrange on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 300 for about 12 minutes, then turn opver and bake again until crisp, about 12 minutes more. Watch carefully towards the end because they go from crisp to overdone quickly.
Try spicing this with other spices like herbes de province, cumin and coriander, etc. The cheese can also be left out. |
|
Savory Wheat Crisps
I lov
e a Canadian Cracker called Raincoast Crisps, but they are really expensive and sometimes hard to find here. Julie Rosandaal, in her cookbook Grazing, has a recipe that is close to the bought versions, and I have made it several times with lots of creative tweaks. This time I tried to develop a savory rendition of crisps. They were so good as bread that I ate half a small loaf right out of the oven. They are equally good dried as crisps. And another great thing, there is no butter or eggs in this recipe, but because of the buttermilk they are moist and rich as a bread, and crisp as a cracker.
|
Ingredients |
Method |
Dry Ingredients:
|
Mix together and blend thoroughly.
Re flax – grind your own meal in a coffee grinder, it is far better than bought |
| 1 cup buttermilk | Add buttermilk and mix quickly. (Yes, there is no butter or eggs in this recipe!) |
| Bake at 350 in small loaf pans until the tops are cracked and slightly browned. Allow to cool. Eat fresh like this, or cool, even freeze for a little while, then slice very thin. Bake at 300 on a cookie sheet for 15 minutes, then turn over and bake again for 15 minutes. Watch like a hawk at the end because they overcook easily. | |
