Chicken, orange and caramelised shallots páté & roasted beetroot and horseradish relish

For páté
(makes a large loaf tin or two small loaf tins)

1kg chicken legs
2 small carrots, peeled
few celery stick
3-4 dried porcini mushrooms
5-6 whole black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
2-3 whole allspice
300g pork or chicken liver, cut into 2 inch pieces
approx. 30g butter
300g boneless streaky pork, cut into 1.5 inch pieces
2 shallots, peeled and finely chopped
pinch of sugar
zest of one orange (make sure you zest the orange part only, the white one is bitter)
stale white bread roll
50ml brandy
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
salt
freshly ground black pepper
3 eggs
10-12 thinly cut slices of streaky bacon or pork back fat

Place chicken legs in the pan together with the carrot, porcini mushrooms, celery, allspice, peppercorns and bay leaf. Cover with water and simmer over a low heat for about 1.5 hour.

Fry the liver in the half of butter in the pan until browned, remove from a pan and place in a bowl.

Using the same pan fry streaky pork pieces without any extra fat until slightly browned. Remove from the pan and place in the bowl together with liver.

Still using the same pan fry the shallots in the remaining butter over very low heat, until caramelised but not browned. Add pinch of sugar for last 5 minutes of frying.

Drain the chicken legs together with vegetables. Save the carrots, peppercorns, porcini mushrooms, and let chicken to cool down slightly. Remove the skin and bone the chicken. Place meat together with orange zest, carrots, mushrooms, peppercorns in the bowl together with liver and pork.

Soak bread roll in some stock that was produced when cooking chicken, remove any excess of liquid and place in the bowl.

Mince all the ingredients three times using meat mincer, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, add brandy, egg yolks and mix thoroughly with your hands.

Whisk the egg whites with pinch of salt until they stiff and fold gently into the meat mixture.

Line big loaf tin with bacon or slices of pork back fat, so they slightly overhanging the tin, fill it with a meat mixture, level with a spatula and cover with the overhanging bacon.

Cover the tin with a kitchen tin foil, place in bigger dish filled with hot water (about ¾ of the size of the loaf tin). This is called bain-marie, which is a type of preparation used for protecting dishes requiring gentle heat from the fierce heat of the oven.

Bake for 1.5 hour in preheated oven (180C), uncover and bake for further 10 minutes until the top is golden. Remove from the oven, let it cool down and leave in the fridge overnight before serving.

It goes very well with some homemade beetroot and horseradish relish.


For relish
(makes 2 x 200ml jars)

8 small beets, roughly the same size
1 tbsp olive oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper
few drops of lemon juice
about 8cm piece of fresh horseradish

Place washed unpeeled beetroots in ovenproof dish, drizzle with olive oil and bake for about 40-60 minutes, or until soft in 180C, and then leave it to cool down.

Peel the horseradish and finely grate in a food processor. You can use grater but it will upset your eyes and nose.

Peel beets, grate finely and mix with horseradish, lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper and leave it in the fridge overnight. After night in a fridge it will not be as sharp and hot, so you can add some more horseradish and leave it to rest for another 12 hours.