Pork Pate with Dried Cherries and Pistachios

Rustic Pork Pate with Dried Cherries and Pistachios

Pâté? What’s a pâté? A pâté is simply ground meat mixed with herbs cooked slowly in the oven, chilled, sliced and served. The traditional French accompaniment is cornichon, like tiny dill pickles and rustic mustard. I don’t think have ever been served it in someone’s house but it is often a starter in restaurants and cafes where they make their own. This recipe is based on a pâté from one of my favorite Sonoma restaurants, The Girl and The Fig.

When my friend Shireen invited us over for a cold plated supper I thought this would be the perfect course to prepare. I could do all the work in advance. The only tricky thing I did was grind the meat myself. I bought a meat grinder on Craigslist so plan on hearing of more meat centric adventures.

This pâté screams "Eat me!" The bright green toasted pistachios are poking the dried tart cherries out of the way to take center stage. The contrast of sweet soft cherry to toasted pistachio is complimented by the Asian spice flavors molded into the pork.

Pork Pâté with dried cherries, pistachios and five spice powder

1 teaspoon coriander seeds
2 teaspoons red chili flakes
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon 5-spice powder
1 clove
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 garlic clove

2 ½ pounds ground pork butt (medium grind)
1/4 pound pork fat (medium grind)
2 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
¼ cup sugar

1 cup dried cherries
1 cup pistachios, toasted (raw pistachios, on a sheet in a 350 oven for 8-10 min.)

One or two days before:
Toast the coriander seeds in a small pan on the stove until they start to pop a little. Remove from the heat and add the 5-spice powder and let the heat of the pan warm it up. Add these spices to the spice grinder, along with the rest of the spices – the chili flakes, bay, clove and thyme. Grind them to a fine powder.
In a large bowl combine the ground pork, pork fat, all the ground spices, and the salt, pepper and sugar. Mix well being careful not to overwork but ensuring the spices get evenly mixed throughout. Place in a smaller container and cover. Put in the fridge for 24 hours or more.

The Queen of Beans

On my last visit to the San Francisco farmer’s market at the Ferry Building I made sure to buy one thing. Okay I actually made sure to buy several things – Recchuiti Chocolates, McEvoy Ranch Olive Oil and hand lotion, whatever fruit pastry is in season at Frog Hollow and finally, beans. I don’t mean the amazing collection of heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo (although I guess they are on my must have list too) but the big white gigante beans from Iacopi farms. These beans are sold dried in ziplock bags. The beans are huge to begin with but when cooked they balloon into these enormous, creamy pockets of delight unlike any other bean I have eaten. I would love to serve a bowl to all my friends who are bean haters (this means you Melinda!) I can’t help myself from eating these right out of the pot when they are done. These are the queen of beans.

So I have been eyeing my bag of beans I purchased in May. What dish would be worthy? I pulled out a recipe I have been saving from Food and Wine "Fragrant Gigante Beans with Garlic Confit and Mussels" and finally decided to make it. Not only does it call for gigante or giant limas but it also calls for garlic confit, which is another of my favorite things, and mussels, an unusual combination. I made it last night to rave reviews.

I cooked the beans in the pressure cooker so that eliminated soaking. Pressure cookers are great for all sorts of things but wonderful for cooking beans. Since these were big and unsoaked I cooked them for 50 minutes. I have an electric pressure cooker so I can just set it and walk away. You can also soak them overnight and cook on the stove covered with fresh water until tender.

Garlic confit is easily made. Find every spare clove you have and throw it in a small pan and cover with your cheapest olive oil. I usually leave on the final skin of the clove and just trim off the root end. Simmer for 20 minutes or so until the cloves are so tender they yield like butter when pierced with a fork or knife tip. You want just the essence of a simmer when you cook these – an occasional bubble leaks out from under a clove. Feel free to only partially place the pan on the burner if you can’t get the heat low enough. The recipe makes as many or as few as you like but I always want to make extra to spread on bread or add to a cheese or antipasti plate. After cooking store the oil and garlic separately or throw out the oil if you are not going to use it in a couple days.

I followed the recipe for the most part. I substituted fresh parsley for the dill and chives called for at the end because that is what I had on hand. I served the feta table side and I was the only one who added it. The dish worked well both ways I thought so if you don’t have or like feta leave it out. Crusty bread is a must to accompany this dish, both for sopping up juices and eating the extra garlic confit.

The dish went together quickly once the beans were cooked. It could be served as a first course or an appetizer.

Irish Soda Bread

If you grew up eating Irish Soda Bread on St. Pat's day apparently your version may be nothing like mine. My Irish Soda Bread has to have golden raisins and caraway seeds in it. I don't make it in the shape of snake with raisin eyes like I had when I was little and I never saw the need to dye everything green like in my childhood. But that doesn't mean I don't get a childish pleasure out of making a loaf and serving it on St. Pat's.

You can still make some to celebrate St. Pat's in a more family friendly way today than serving your kids a green beer. One of those really easy breads - no yeast. You should have most of the ingredients at home and you can cheat on the buttermilk if you don't want to stop at the store.

Irish Soda Bread

2 cups flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 T. sugar
1/2 stick cold butter cut into pieces
1 cup golden raisins (or regular raisins)
2 T. caraway seeds (optional but one of my favorite parts)
2/3 cup buttermilk (no buttermilk? look below)
1 egg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In food processor, pulse together flour, baking powder, baking soda, caraway seeds, salt and sugar. Put butter pieces on top of flour mixture.

Whenever I make something where the butter needs to be "cut in" I usually slice the cold stick of butter (or half a stick in this case) into 3 long slices then turn the stick a quarter and cut into 3 slices. You should now have 9 long bars of butter still in a stick shape. Slice on the short end of the stick to produce pea sized squares of cold butter. If you do this before you are ready to use - throw the cubes back in the fridge to stay cold while you gather up everything else.

Add the butter and pulse until mixture is crumbly. Measure 2/3 cup buttermilk into a one cup container or bowl. Add the egg to the buttermilk; beat together. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients. Pulse till it comes together.

Place a small amount of flour on the counter. Turn dough out onto the counter and work in the raisins until incorporated. Don’t overwork the dough though or it will be tough.

Form the dough into a ball and place in a parchment lined pan to form a large disk of dough. Use a sharp knife to cut a cross over the top of the bread. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden on top. Slice and serve with Irish butter.

To make a substitute for buttermilk add a tablespoon of lemon juice to one cup of whole milk. The milk will curdle. Measure out the amount you need.

If you want to go authentic Andrew McCarthy wrote a story on it in March, Bon Appetit.