(by Patricia Fieldsteel)
I make this for my friends where I now live in Provence, France. My Arab friends add cumin, and my French friends find this a fascinating type of pâté. There is a private history attached to the crock in the photo, which I found at a vide-grenier (“empty your attic"), similar to a garage sale, for one Euro. When I was growing up, friends of my family in Paris, would send the same crocks every Christmas, filled with pâté de foie gras (goose liver), a pricey and cherished delicacy. We would both ration and gorge on it, and then eagerly await the next Christmas. The rest of the year we ate chopped chicken liver, the delicacy of both poor and wealthy Ashkenazi Jews. Now I combine my pasts in this similar crock.
rendered chicken fat or butter
2 or 3 large sweet white onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. chicken livers
sherry or Madeira, to taste
6 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Heat chicken fat or butter, and sauté onions and garlic.
Remove with slotted spoon, and set aside.
In same pan, sauté chicken livers in onion-flavored fat, adding more fat if needed.
Add sherry or Madeira toward the end of cooking.
Remove livers with a slotted spoon, and cool on paper towels.
Chop livers as if your life depended on it.
Mix with reserved onions, and add hard-boiled eggs.
Season with salt and pepper.
Chill before serving.
(Read More Is Better, the story that accompanies this recipe.)