Up-market Appetisers

Happy New Year!! Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year!

I thought I'd make a couple of appetisers for the holidays.

For Christmas I made pate. Even if you don't like livers, I think you'll like pate. In fact some of the people that tried it said they liked it but don't like livers.

This recipe I got from my trusty Margaret Fulton Encyclopedia of Food and Cookery.

Ingredients:

8oz (250g) chicken livers
1 1/4 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 1/2oz (45g) butter
2 hard boiled eggs
salt and pepper
(more) butter, melted, to seal

First things first. Rinse off the livers then simmer in the stock for 10 minutes.

Drain, reserving the stock. Then remove the veins from the livers. There is a big one that is in the middle of the joined livers that is a must to get out.

Puree the livers with a little of the stock in a blender.

 Brown the onion lightly in the butter and blend with the liver puree and eggs to make a paste.

 Put in a small dish or 4 individual ramekins.

 

 Pour melted butter over surface to seal pate and refrigerate for several hours.

Next up are Jalapeno Poppers.

I got this recipe from one of the guy's I used to work with.

So, in honour of him, I call these Peterson's Poppers.

Ingredients:

1lb (600g) Italian pork sausage
20 jalapenos
1 block of cream cheese
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Cook the sausage in a saucepan until browned and crumble as much as you can.

Allow the sausage to cool for a few minutes, then add the cream cheese and stir until combined and melted. I cut the cream cheese up a bit to make things easier.

Allow the mixture to cool, then add the cheddar cheese and mix to combine.

Prepare your jalapenos by cutting off the stalk end and then cut them in half. Remove the seeds and veins using a teaspoon. Then, using your fingers, stuff the sausage mixture into/onto the halved jalapenos.

Cook the jalapenos in a pre-heated 350F (180C) oven for 15 minutes or until the peppers are soft.

These are really, really good. Even people that don't like hot food love these...someone even compared them to crack, they just couldn't stop eating them.

So, there you have it. The preparation for these is a bit time consuming, but very worth the effort.

Enjoy!

Matt