Not My Mother's Chicken Liver Not Pate

Growing up, whenever we had roast chicken for dinner or whenever there was a holiday meal festive enough to call for hors d'oeures, my mother would make what she called "chicken liver pate", basically a spread made from cooked chicken livers eaten on crackers.

Our local supermarket offers a 20 oz. container for chicken livers for $1.58.  Seems cheap at the price so I recently tried to duplicate my mothers recipe from what I remembered seeing her do (I thought) and what I remembered as the outcome.

I took some of the product over to Mom's to share before dinner one night and in the ensuing discussion found out that what I thought I remembered her doing was not what she remembered and what I had made was not really what she had made.  So, this is Not My Mother's.  Then, before sitting down to write this I looked up the definition of pate in a couple of cookbooks and discovered that it is very different from this so it's not pate either.  Hence the name.  In any event, I think this is pretty good and like to keep some on hand to spread on a cracker whenever hunger strikes.

I take a 20 oz container of chicken livers and rinse well (they tend to be pretty bloody as received), then boil them in water for 8-10 minutes or until done (brown color inside).  Transfer the cooked livers to a stainless steel bowl and mash with fork, adding ~1 t. of mayo and, to taste, a splash of Worchestshire Sauce, a splash of Marsala, salt, pepper ground mustard and dried thyme.  The thyme works very well and is my contribution to this flavor ensemble.  There is obviously a huge opportunity for experimentation and further seasoning development in this basic recipe.

Lentils and Hominy

Someone in the family - and I ain't namin' names - got a little over exuberant in the hominy buying department, so I was looking for a way to use up an extra can of white hominy.  I decided to try making lentils and hominy, basically lentil soup with a can of hominy added.  So:

2 cup concentrated chicken broth
2 cup water
1/2 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
2 stalks celery
1 carrot
1 medium potato
1/2 cup dry lentils
1 20 oz can of white hominy
seasoned with salt, black pepper, red pepper, bay leaf, ground mustard - suit yourself

Veg all chopped or diced into the broth, lentils in when it comes to boil, cook 55 minutes or until the lentils are done (you all know how to make lentil soup, right?).

Because there are only 2 of us these days, I made just 1/2 cup of lentils resulting in a low lentil to hominy ratio.  Would be better with everything doubled but still use just one can of hominy, or else buy a smaller can.

Anyway, this turns out to be a really good flavor combination leaving itself open to future exploration of seasonings.  Plus, turns out lentils and hominy are complimentary proteins, so it's very nutritious.