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.

Sugar Waffles from Liege

 

There are some things about Belgium that are really bad, like Belgian drivers and the overall chaos...

But there are also some things about Belgium that are wonderful - like Belgian beers (Kriek being my favorite), Belgian chocolate and Belgian waffless. 

There are many sorts of waffles: with or without yeast, with or without beer, not sweet at all or extremely sweet. One thing they have in common (at least those that I have already tried) is that they are very, very nice. The nicer the colder the weather is and the waffles warmer.

In Belgium you can get waffles anywhere: in a supermarket, at a restaurant, on a street corner. Or you can make them at home - then not only will you get the great taste of waffles, but also your kids, husbands, boyfriends etc. will simply adore you.

Liege Sugar Waffles
(about 20 small waffles)


750 g flour
270 ml lukewarm milk
70 g fresh yeast
3 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
15 g salt
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
400 g very soft butter
500 g pearl sugar

Put all the ingredients except for butter and sugar into a bowl and mix until the dough is smooth. Cover the bowl with a towel and place in a warm place to rise for about 45-60 minutes.
Punch dough down, add butter and sugar and work the dough for a short while - only until the butter is well mixed in. You don't want the sugar to dissolve.
Divide the dough into 20 balls (can be less or more - the thing is they have to fit into your waffle iron), place them on a board and place in a warm place to rise.
Preheat the waffle iron - remember not to grease it! When the iron is hot, start frying the waffles: place the dough balls in the iron (possibly two at a time), close the lid and let the waffles fry for about 4 minutes, or until golden brown.
Because of the amount of butter and sugar in the dough your iron will be a total mess at the end, but the waffles are worth it :-)