Home | Directory | Contact | FAQ | Recipes | Restaurants | Vietnamese Recipes | 100 Vietnamese Foods | Subscribe

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Turkey Liver Pate

Normally, I toss out the liver when making my turkey for Thanksgiving. But this year, when I was about to do so, I saw how nice the liver looked. (Well, as nice as liver can look anyway.) And because I had baguettes on hand for my Crock Pot Bo Kho (Vietnamese Beef Stew), why not some pate to go with it?

Quick and simple recipe that yields about two ramekins. After all, how much pate do you really want anyway?

Turkey Liver Pate 1

Turkey Liver Pate
Adapted from my recipe for Chicken Liver Pate

For two ramekins, you'll need:
Turkey livers, washed and diced
1/2 small onion, diced
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick), plus extra for spreading on top
1 tblsp cognac or white wine
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried thyme

See? Pretty nice looking turkey livers. Cut off any extraneous membranes. Wash and dice the livers. Add 1/2 tsp salt.

Turkey Liver Pate 2

Dice 1/2 of a small onion. Then saute in a pan on medium-high heat until the liver is completely cooked. Add 1 tblsp of cognac and 1/4 tsp dried thyme.

Turkey Liver Pate 3

Let the mixture cool down. Chop 1/4 cup butter.

Turkey Liver Pate 4

Puree in a food processor until the mixture is as smooth as you'd like. I don't mind the slightly grainy texture. Taste. Add salt if necessary.

Turkey Liver Pate 5

Fill two ramekins with the pate mixture.

Turkey Liver Pate 6

I like to top my pate with a slight layer of butter (Actually, Shedd's Spread Country Crock for its buttery taste and spreadability.) for aesthetics and to keep the pate from drying out. Cover and refrigerate for several hours until ready to serve.

Turkey Liver Pate 7

Enjoy turkey liver pate spread on baguettes with a lovely afternoon tea.

Thanksgiving Leftovers Afternoon Tea 14

Enjoy!

New recipes served this Thanksgiving:
Crock Pot Bo Kho (Vietnamese Beef Stew)
Homemade Turkey Gravy
Pate Chinois (Canadian "Chinese" Cottage Pie)
Pumpkin Marbled Cheesecake
Triple-Deviled Eggs with Black Pepper, Paprika, and Sriracha
Turkey Liver Pate

*****
1 year ago today, musings "On Glamour's "Engagement" Chicken and Who I Cook For."
2 years ago today, 8 random things about me.
3 years ago today, musings about food, family, and etiquette.

10 comments:

  1. Usually my turkey livers go to my cats, but this year I thought I would try something different. I found your recipe and tried it right away. Yum! Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Hopeful Romantic,
    Too bad for your cats, but I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for letting me know. So many hits for this recipe around Thanksgiving, but no one ever comments!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I saw you commented "no one ever comments" so I just had to leave a comment. We raise turkeys and I found your recipe a while back while looking for something to do with the many livers I had after processing our turkeys. This is a wonderful recipe. Everyone I have served it to loves it! Very, very tasty and so easy to prepare. Thank you so much for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 6ba833ec-5d08-11e2-9c35-000bcdcb8a73,
    Yay! I love comments on old posts. Lets me know people are still reading. So people buy the turkeys only without the innards? Those are the best parts. I love gizzards and hearts. And of course, liver for pate.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for your post. I killed a 40 lb. turkey (a really huge Tom) and I had a huge perfect liver to cook. I always try to use as much as possible of any animal I eat--it is respectful to not waste. Your recipe is simple and delicious--I altered it slightly by adding garlic and fresh parsley since I had those ingredients on hand.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wolf Kin,
    Yay! Another comment on this old post. Just when I say no one comments on this recipe, people come out of the woodwork. A 40-lb turkey is gigantic! I can't imagine! Garlic and fresh parsley are great additions. I bet the pate was even better since you raised the turkey yourself.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This recipe is great for the 2013 holidays. None of my guests for turkey like giblet gravy, so this is a perfect use for the liver. Thanks very much for the excellent work of developing and publishing this treat.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Robert,
    So glad the pate recipe turned out for you. My guests prefer turkey liver pate to giblet gravy too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Recently, I came into possession of some rabbit livers (sans the actual rabbits since I can't seem to shed the image of Bugs Bunny), and I used this recipe to process them into liver pâté. Fantastic!! The pâté is a bit sweeter than the turkey/chicken variety but works just as well. I get around the association with Bugs by saying to myself "the wascally wabbit" doesn't have a liver."

      Delete
  9. Robert,
    I never even thought of making rabbit liver pate! Of course, the only rabbit I see is my sister-in-law's pet so that's a no no. :P Actually, there's frozen rabbit at 99 Ranch, but it's just the carcass, so no liver there. I think rabbit tastes like chicken, so I imagine the liver pate would be similar.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for stopping by. I try to respond in a timely manner, but am not always able to do so. If you're awaiting a response, check the post in which the comment is made or click the "Notify me" option.

If you're not a blogger and you'd like to leave a comment, you can do so using your Google/Gmail account.

I welcome questions, discussions, and feedback, but please be mindful that this is my home online. I reserve the right to delete any comment that is anonymous or unknown, rude, promotional, or has a link.

Thank you for reading!