Baked Liver Pâté
·Prepare the meat and roast it
Cut the liver and pork belly into small cubes, season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Mix thoroughly and leave in the fridge overnight. The next day, put it in the oven preheated to 200°C and roast until the liver is tender.
Blend the mixture
Take it out of the oven, let it cool, then blend with a stick blender. Whether you blend it smooth or leave it a bit chunkier is up to you. I took about three-quarters of the mixture and blended it smooth, leaving the rest coarser so there'd be big chunks of liver in the pâté.
Add the prunes and garlic
Add the prunes, chopped into smaller pieces, and the garlic pressed through a garlic press. Finally, mix everything together with the cream. If you like, you can also add your favourite herbs — thyme works brilliantly here.
Line the mould with bacon
Line a terrine mould with slices of streaky bacon, overlapping them slightly. Pour the meat mixture into the lined mould, then press it down firmly and level it off.
Place in a roasting tray with water
Place the pâté in a roasting tray filled with water up to halfway up the mould. Set the oven to 160°C and bake — really more like poach — for 2 hours.
Chill for a long time
It's important to let the finished pâté cool really thoroughly — first at room temperature, then in the fridge. Otherwise the pâté will crumble and won't slice nicely. A wonderful accompaniment to this pâté is autumn chutney and no-knead bread.
