Duck Pate

There was this restaurant in my town, years ago, when I was a girl... For some reason it was thought to be quite fashionable, to me then it was quite strange, now I know it was just very ugly. Anyway, there were two reasons why I liked when our parents took me and my sister for a dinner to that place. The first reason was that there was a fountain in the middle of the room and if we were lucky we could sit right next to it. Ugly or not, I have always liked water. The second reason was food - and to be more precise it was duck. They had this wonderful duck pate which was well worth spending time in ugly surroundings...
Anyway, one day the restaurant disappeared and so did the duck pate, naturally. I have never found anything similar to it in any other place (not that I was looking for it especially hard, possibly I just happened to be going to the wrong duck-pate-free places, that's all), so at some point I figured I should try to make something similar at home. It didn't take long to figure out the basic recipe, but getting the spices right has taken some time. But at the end it worked and this is all that counts. I'm quite happy with the results - and I enjoy my pate every time I make it.

 

Duck Pate
(two small loaves)

600 g duck fillet (with fat and skin)
400g chicken livers
250 g chicken fillet
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons finely chopped corriander
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, shredded
2 teaspoons cardamon
2 teaspoon nutmeg
3 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Bring water to boiling in a very big pot.
In the meantime separate skin and fat from the duck meat.
Cut the skin, fat, 1/2 duck meat, chicken livers and chicken fillet into pieces, put them in the bowl of a food processor together with egg, milk, salt and pepper. Process on high speed until the mixture is smooth. Add breadcrumbs and process one minute more.
Add the spices and mix well.
Cut the remaining duck meat into small pieces (1x1 cm), add to the mixture and stir.
Divide the mixture in halves. Put each half on a sheet of aluminum foil, form it into a loaf fitting your pot and wrap carefully with foil making sure there are no openings or holes through which the mixture could escape.
Put rolls into boiling water, cook for 90 minutes. When cooked, place them side by side on a wooden board and top with another board and something heavy (like a pot filled with water, few bags of flour or sugar or a few books). Leave the rolls like this to cool completely, then remove the aluminum foil and place loaves in a fridge. When thoroughly chilled slice and serve with fruit (fresh or canned). The pate also goes very well with cranberry preserve.