Chicken Liver Pate

I received my thirteen chickens back from Sid yesterday,

and I was amazed to find that I have no less than 75 lbs of beautiful free range chicken, ready to go in the freezer. The birds ranged in size from seven and a half pounds down to four and a half, with most being at the top end of that range. They look plump and delicious and I can't wait to try one. But in the meantime there's this big tray of giblets to deal with. (I made the photo small in case you're reading this over breakfast, how considerate am I?)

The necks, hearts and gizzards all go into a big saucepan, and simmer in water in the aga for a few hours, and will provide me with a good supply of stock, but the livers are reserved for a special treat.

Chicken Liver Pate.

This recipe is based on the one in Elizabeth David's Summer Cooking from about 1970, although I've altered  it quite a lot over the years. You'll notice it's not for slimmers,  my husband always maintains that artichokes are just an excuse to eat loads of butter, and I'm afraid this pate is a similar case, but you can always justify it with the thought of all that healthy liver you're having with it. Do try, by the way, to get some livers from decent free range birds, as most supermarket ones are from battery birds  - Waitrose do some good ones.

8 oz chicken livers, cleaned, trimmed, and cut in half
8 oz butter
1 onion
1-2 fat cloves garlic
2 tablespoons brandy
2 tablespoons medium sherry (the kind you keep for making trifles or for when Aunt Mildred comes)
salt pepper nutmeg

Whizz the onion and garlic in a food processor until finely chopped, and then saute them in 6oz of the butter until soft.

Should take about 10 minutes, watch it doesn't brown, the butter will easily overheat and burn. Tip into the food processor, retaining some butter to cook the livers.
Add the chicken livers, and cook for a few minutes until browned on the outside, but still pink in the middle. Add generous amounts of salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Tip into the food processor.

Add the brandy and sherry(or port) and scrape up any sediment and allow to bubble for a minute or two until syrupy, then pour into the processor and whizz everything together until smooth.

Turn into a dish and smooth out.

Gently melt the remaining butter and use to cover the pate when it has cooled. 

You should really leave it in the fridge for a day before eating, but I've just had some for supper that I made this afternoon and it was delicious, with hot brown toast and a dollop of chutney. Also makes a luxury starter for a dinner party.

D Day

At last Sid has judged my Hubbard table chickens fit for despatch. They are 21 weeks old, so about half as long again as I had originally planned. He will be coming round late this afternoon to do the deed. I will not be giving the birds any additional feed during the day, apart from what they forage for themselves,- this makes for a less messy job - and of course water. The weather is atrocious, gale force winds and rain, we will be lucky if they don't blow away in the storm at this rate. After despatch he will hang the birds in his garage overnight, and prepare them tomorrow. As he has a plucking machine he can get through my thirteen birds in a fraction of the time it would take me to pluck them by hand.

I will do a  post on  this whole experience of raising birds for the table in due course, explaining whether I will do it again and what I have learned. Quite a bit will depend on the quality of the chicken on the table - if they turn out to be tough and stringy, I may have to re-think my future plans, but I'm hoping, and Sid tells my they will be, quite delicious, with a better "chickeny" flavour than anything I could get at Waitrose, or indeed, as Sid gleefully says, than the ones they sell for fifteen quid at the local organic farm shop.

I do feel quite sad that the birds have reached the end of their lives, but I will ensure that I complete my obligation towards them by ensuring as quick and stress free an end as possible.  It's not an easy thing to do, when you've raised any creature from day-old to fully grown, but I comfort myself with the knowledge that they have lived a good life,  felt the sun on their backs and the wind ruffle their feathers, and will have eaten as many worms and slugs as any chicken, or indeed any gardener, could ever wish for.

The Three Tenors

Of the thirteen Hubbard chickens that I am raising for the table, there are I think four or five cockerels, which isn't a problem, until they grow up - and start to crow. These three are the biggest of the bunch  and have clearly decided to embark on a competition to decide who can sing loudest.

Only one has what you could call a proper crow as yet, the others are still working on the Strangulated Cat variation. I had expected to have them all in the freezer by now, but Sid my friendly chicken expert and butcher has advised me to fatten them up a bit more. They don't seem to be fighting, which can also be a problem with cockerels, so I will leave them all together for the time being. I think it helps that they have plenty of room, so aren't under so much pressure to compete with each other. Except on the singing front. Every now and then they take up their positions, and in a very orderly fashion take it in turns to perform, it's a bit like X Factor for Chickens. The other hens stand around like admiring groupies. Me, I'm just Simon Cowell. Pass the earplugs.

Hubbard Table Chickens - Another Reprieve!

Oh dear, Sid called in to inspect the Hubbard table chickens, and has prounounced them still not fat enough!  So I have to keep feeding them as much as possible and he's coming back in another couple of weeks or so. They are certainly getting quite big, but in a rather leggy, rangy way and they need more flesh on them before they will make good roasters. Several of the cockerels are quite big and are trying to crow a bit, they will certainly have to go before too long, as cockerels together can sometimes fight for dominance.

Of course they are eating quite a lot now that they are fairly big, and it's costing extra to keep them.  At this rate they will turn out to be more expensive than the free range chickens that are sold at the farm shop for £15 each! Hopefully it won't turn out to be that bad, but even  if it did, I am looking on this as a learning experience, and you have to expect to pay for knowledge and experience, one way or another!  I've certainly learned a lot. There are a number of things I will do differently next time, that's assuming there will be a next time - if these birds turn out to be stringy and tough it might put me off trying again,  - there's only so much coq au vin and chicken soup a person can stomach,- but I hope they'll be better than that. Fingers crossed.

No Roast Chicken Yet!

Sid, my friendly expert butcher, has called in to see my Hubbard table birds and pronounced them well grown but too skinny to dispatch yet. He advises restricting their space as he thinks they are running off all the feed they consume as they have the run of our large garden and are consequently not putting on the weight ( I feel there's a lesson for us all here somewhere) and  I should feed them on plenty of rolled barley and boiled potato peelings.

So I have put them in a run, where they still have plenty of space and grass, and I have been amazed at how much they are actually eating, I feel guilty that I haven't been feeding them enough. They are having three high carb meals a day of rolled barley, some boiled slug damaged potatoes, and whatever else is around, bread, pasta, anything really that would give Dr Atkins the screaming heeby jeebies. Anyway they seem perfectly happy and can be seen lolling contentedly on the grass having consumed their large lunch of apple cores, rolled barley, potatoes and some wholewheat pasta that I bought one time when I was trying to be healthy and never used. Sid's checking back in three weeks. Hold the bread sauce.

Please feel free to comment on this post or just say hello..

Garden Update

Now is a good time to look at what flowers and shrubs have done well in your garden this year, in order to increase your stock and hopefully have an even better display next year. Everyone's garden is different, and has it's own little idiosycracies of soil, climate, and so on, so it makes sense to note what you can grow well and make the most of it.
In my garden this year I have been pleased with, amongst other things -

The Blue Wall - an early display of Wisteria, Ceanothus, and Solanum on the south wall of the house.

This  pretty little pale yellow daisy like flower is Anthemis Tinctoria EC Buxton, and has flowered all summer long, wonderful value, and easy to grow. I will split the clump quite soon and have a large patch of it for next year.

And the surprise star of Spring was Allium Schubertii, which looks like a violet exploding firework when in flower, and afterwards the dried seedhead looks almost as good. I have just harvested the dried seedheads which I intend to spray with silver paint for Christmas decorations

Apples continue to ripen and I am storing the best unblemished fruit in perforated plastic bags in the garage along with my garlic and onion crops.  Plastic bags are not as picturesque as wooden boxes or slatted shelves but work pretty well, although you do need to keep an eye on them whatever storage method you use, the old saying about one bad apple is indeed correct and can spoil a whole batch it you don't spot it early and remove it. You can see the dried Allium Schubertii seedheads hanging on the left.The Hubbard table chickens are now 13 weeks old and  I will  have to start thinking about dispatching and processing them. They are quite variable in size however, so I intend to take advice from Sid about whether they are ready to go yet or not. The four cockerels are, unsurprisingly, a bit bigger than the rest, and some of the hens are a good size and others quite small.