Coarse Pork Pate

This, I freely admit, is not strictly a cheat’s recipe, but so blissfully easy is it that even the most inadequate cheat will be able to throw it all together with gay abandon, then smugly take a bow when incredulous recipients question that you actually made it yourself. This is all made possible by a clever supplier of the most fantastic free-range pork – Lane Farm in Suffolk. They will supply all the meat, coarsely minced, so removing the tedious shopping and the even more tedious chopping. So with two Bank Holiday weekends close upon us, to have some brilliant pâté, good bread and salad available for all eventualities or unexpected mouths to feed is an absolute joy.

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  Serves 10-12

Ingredients
12 oz (350 g) minced lean pork
1 lb (450 g) minced pork fat
12 oz (350 g) smoked streaky bacon, minced
8 oz (225 g) pork liver, minced
25 juniper berries
25 whole black peppercorns
2 large cloves of garlic
1 heaped teaspoon salt
1/4 rounded teaspoon ground mace
1 heaped teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
4 fl oz (120 ml) dry white wine
1 fl oz (25 ml) brandy
To garnish:
fresh bay leaves
a few extra juniper berries

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Equipment
You will also need a terrine with a 3-pint (1.75-litre) capacity or a 2 lb (900 g) loaf tin.

This recipe first appeared in You magazine.

Method

Begin by crushing the juniper berries and then the peppercorns with a pestle and mortar (or with the back of a tablespoon on a flat surface), and do the same with the garlic. Then simply place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix everything extremely thoroughly with a large fork – keep going until you feel everything is evenly distributed. Cover the bowl with a cloth and leave it in a cool place for a couple of hours to allow the flavours to develop. After that, pre-heat the oven to gas mark 2, 300°F (150°C). Pack the mixture into the tin and decorate the top with the bay leaves and extra juniper berries. Place it in a roasting tin half-filled with hot water and bake on the centre shelf of the oven for 13/4 hours. The pâté will be swimming in fat, but ignore it – you are not going to eat it but its presence around the pâté keeps it moist. Remove it from the roasting tin, and, when cold, cover with a double sheet of foil, place some heavy weight on it (I use all my scale weights) and leave it in the fridge for 24 hours. Serve with some good bread and cornichons. The good news is that any left over will freeze extremely well. The Lane Farm coarse pork pâté mix pack contains the following meats - coarsely minced : 12 oz (350 g) minced lean pork 1 lb (450 g) minced pork fat 12 oz (350 g) minced smoked streaky bacon 8 oz (225 g) minced pork liver £15, including delivery (within England).Lane Farm Country Foods (01379 384593) or ian@lanefarm.co.uk. If you don't want to take advantage of the mail order, an obliging butcher will prepare the meats for you.

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