Recipe: Chicken liver pate

Another tried and true offering, and you get gold stars if you make your own.

1

Finely dice a medium onion.

2 Drain 300g of chicken livers and trim off any sinew or fat.

3 Zest a lemon and squeeze its juice.

4 Take the leaves off 4 sprigs of fresh thyme and chop up half a cup of parsley leaves taken off the stalk.

5 Melt 100g of butter over a gentle heat and then add the onion to soften.

6 Turn up the heat and saute the livers, adding in the lemon zest and thyme.

7 When the livers have coloured but are still pink inside, pour over the lemon juice, season well with salt and pepper and remove from the heat. Toss in the chopped parsley.

8 After cooling a little, put all ingredients into your food processor and blend until you get it as rustic or smooth as you prefer.

9 Chill the pate in the fridge to firm up.

10 Make some crostini or toast squares.

11 Saute off some fine apple slices in butter and lemon juice and drain on a paper towel to cool.

To serve: Check the seasoning and add more salt or pepper to the pate if you need to. Spoon a good mound of pate on to each bread base. Decorate with a sliver of cooked apple and some red jelly. I used a grape jelly I had made but a bit of redcurrent jelly from a bought jar would be just as good.