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Chicken liver mousse

This chicken liver mousse (or parfait, as it might be referred to in its homeland) is one of the great bastions of the French charcutier’s repertoire. If you come across it whilst browsing the deli counter at your local supermarket, it may vary from quite acceptable to downright horrid depending, of course, on how it has been made and how long its shelf life has been artificially extended. I promise you this version will bear little resemblance to anything you may have picked up at said supermarché and it is definitely best eaten within a day or two of making. You will need a food processor and a fine (chinois) sieve for this recipe.

Makes 8–10 ramekins, ideal as a starter

3 shallots, peeled

1 clove of garlic, peeled and minced

8–10 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

100ml port

100ml Madeira

50ml Armagnac or cognac

15g salt

freshly ground black pepper

400g unsalted butter

5 medium eggs

550g very fresh chicken livers, any obvious green bile removed

The secret to achieving the gossamer-like texture of this mousse is to ensure that all the ingredients are at the correct temperature before blending, in order to achieve a good ‘emulsion’. Because the raw mixture contains eggs and butter, there is always a chance that the mixture may separate or ‘split’ and if this occurs the finished mousse will be grainy on the tongue – not what we are after. By following this method carefully, you should create a chicken liver parfait so smooth and fine that it would be worthy of the most upwardly mobile apprentice charcutier.

You will require a container big enough to take all the ramekins snugly (or two such containers for half each) and deep enough to comfortably accommodate water to come halfway up the ramekins. Place the ramekins in the container(s) but don’t add water yet. Boil the kettle. Have the food processor ready and the sieve with a suitable container (a large plastic jug is ideal) into which to pass the mixture. All this apparatus can be organised before the making of the mixture.

Add the shallots to a small stainless steel pan with the garlic, herbs, alcohols, salt and five or six turns of the pepper mill. Bring up to the boil and reduce until four-fifths of the liquid has cooked off – the reduction should resemble a thin syrup. Fish out and discard the sprigs of thyme and the bay leaf. Scrape the rest of the reduction into the bowl of the food processor.

Set the oven to 110°C. Melt the butter thoroughly but slowly, so that it does not become too hot – it should be at warm blood temperature. The eggs also must be at the same temperature. Breaking them into a small pan and keeping them by the stove (or by an open fire in winter – très rustic) will help in this regard. The livers themselves ditto. This is easiest achieved by placing the livers into another small pan and, with scrupulously clean hands, agitating over a low heat so that you can feel when the correct warm temperature has been reached.

When all the ingredients are at the correct warm temperature, we need to work quite quickly. Start by blending the livers thoroughly with the reduction in the food processor for about 20 seconds – you may need to stop the machine to scrape the ingredients back down under the blade with a rubber spatula. With the motor running, add the eggs one by one – wait no longer than 2–3 seconds between the addition of each egg, as we do not want the mixture to cool down unduly. With the motor still running, pour in the melted butter gradually but confidently in a steady stream – it should take about 10 seconds to add. Do not chuck it all in at once or the mixture will split. Stop the machine as soon as the butter has been incorporated.

Once the mixture has been made, pass the whole lot quickly through the sieve. The back of a small ladle will help you get it through more quickly. You will need to work hard to get the mixture through the sieve. If the mixture has become too cold, the butter will start to solidify and it will be difficult to pass. If the ingredients are too hot (on no account should any of them be steaming hot), the mixture will be thin enough to go though the sieve easily but one runs the risk of it separating. Once the mixture is successfully through the sieve, dispense it evenly between the ramekins. Do not fill them to the very brim – about two-thirds full is fine.

Pour the contents of the boiled kettle carefully into the container so that the water comes up roughly to the same level as the mixture inside the ramekins. Cover the whole container loosely but neatly with foil and transfer to the oven. How long these take to cook will depend on the exact temperature of the mixture when passed through the sieve. They normally take 20–25 minutes. They are ready when there is still a slight ripple in the middle of the mousse when the ramekin is gently shaken. The mixture should have thickened perceptibly, but if it has remained stubbornly thin, cook the mousses for another 5 minutes and re-check.

Alternatively, all the passed mixture can be poured into one small china terrine and baked in the same way. This will obviously take longer to cook – more like 40 minutes, but the same ‘ripple’ test applies.

Leave the mousses to come down to room temperature and then store them in the fridge. Personally, I think they are best cooked in the morning and eaten in the evening. Making them the day before is absolutely fine, though, but they begin to take on a fridgey taste after a couple of days and the light texture will start to deaden somewhat. Eat with toasted sourdough or brioche and a dressed green bean or leaf salad. Or just spread thickly on baguette. It is fashionable to serve onion marmalade (or other chutneys) with chicken liver mousse, but I prefer it without such embellishment. Add some rillettes of duck, some thinly sliced prosciutto and cornichons and you have yourself an elegant assiette of charcuterie.