Ginger spiced pate

I haven't been cooking a lot recently which worked really well for my waistline, but not so well for my blog. But I volunteered to bring food to some of my friends parties lately. Whether I did it to help them with their preparations or whether I did ot for the sake of having something to add to my blog remains a secret :-)
When my friend Laurent celebrated his 34th birthday, I brought round the biggest block of pate ever, thinking that there will be around 20 guests. As it turned out, 2/3 of the people didn't show up. So I am sure that he and his boyfriend are still having pate every evening.
Whenever there is an occasion, I make pate. Pate and salami are the two reasons why I couldn't become a vegetarian. Salami I buy in the shops, pate is something though I usually make myself: It's cheaper, better and more animal-friendly as I only use organic duck or chicken liver. Also, it's less boring than shop bought pate as I play around with flavours quite a bit. I have tried many variations, but my favourite one uses spring onion, chilli, ginger, soy sauce and garlic. Once the chicken liver is nicely brown on the outside but still pink in the centre, I add the spices and a few splashes of soy sauce, put it all in a blender, add butter and mix until smooth and creamy.
To make it look more fancy, I decorated my latest pate with some jellied ginger by simply boiling some ginger with water, then adding gelatine. I poured the mixture into a pound cake tin and let it cool in the fridge for an hour before filling the tin up to the rim with pate.

Cannelini bean & salmon canapés

I admit this isn't one of my recipe ideas (check the Passionate's Cook blog). I also admit that I actually didn't really make them, I merely assembled them.
Anyway, I ate them and I liked them. So I thought I might as well include them in my blog.

My friend Laurent and I did this for his birthday party. It proved to be a big hit (especially with me) and although I did have my inital doubts (too simple to impress), it was one of the nicest nibbles of the evening. And it is really quick in the making... and almost cheap if you leave out the caviar as we did!

Spinach and sweet potato cake

Any party that exceeds a dinner party in size is a good excuse to search the web and especially food blogs for funky finger food and sweets. In fact, that's how I first discovered the art of food blogging. Some of the stuff you come across there is much more inspiring and handsome than any celebrity chef's offerings.
I admit to being a rather superficial person. Looks, looks, looks. That's how I usually choose my party food. The more impressive it looks, the more likely it is to make it on to my buffet. So when my friend Laurent decided to make a spinach and sweet potato pound cake look-alike from La Tartine Gourmande's food blog (don't get me wrong, the cake on the blog does look nice, it's just missing the wow factor), I suggested a million and one more attractive things to eat, but he stubbornly insisted on his choice.
Right so. The spinach and sweet potato cake not only looked delicious, it was delicious.

Chicken skewers a la saltimbocca

Skewers make a great party dish: you can be as creative as you want with the ingredients and presentation. And best of all: you won't have to wash millions of plates once your guest have left.
Inspired by The Passionate Cook, my friend Laurent took the skewer idea on board and although we couldn't find all ingredients given in the recipe we came up with our own pretty good little mouthfuls of succulent chicken and croutons.
Basically, we were missing the fresh sage. Fresh herbs are not always easy to get. Unless you live in shopping distance to Borough Market. But luckily, in this recipe you can cheat using dried sage. Chicken skewers a la saltimbocca with croutons and basil, for 15 skewers
: 2 boneless chicken breasts, diced
: 100g Serrano ham, cut into thin stripes
: 2 tbsp dried sage
: 15 leaves of purple basil
: French country loaf, diced
: sea salt
: olive oil

Salt the diced chicken, cover each piece with dried sage, then wrap in Serrano ham. Heat some olive oil in a pan and fry the chicken parcels until golden. Remove from pan.
Add a little more oil to the pan and fry the bread cubes until crisp.
Stick one piece of chicken and one crouton on each skewer. Finish each skewer off with a leave of fresh basil.

Smoked salmon wraps

Wraps are a great way to feed your hungry boyfriend in the evening or your guests at a party. They are easy and quite cheap in the making and taste great. And the best think about them: you can practically put anything in a wrap. Recently, at a friend's party, we had salmon, dill and cream cheese wraps and ham, mustard and spinach wraps. The most simple of them all and almost the best was rolled up version of the the classic ham, cheese and mustard sandwich.

Mini duck liver paté eclairs with chocolate-balsamic icing

I defrosted my freezer a few days before I had my BBQ. I came across the duck liver which I had left over from my last party. Just a few small livers, not enough to feed a party of 15-20 with a nice paté for starters. Still, I wanted to use it up and out of the blue I had the idea of duck liver filled paté.
I sort of didn't think any further (I do like experimenting with my patés by adding herbs, alcohols etc.), so when the time came to actually make the paté I wasn't prepared for any special flavours. While going through my fridge looking for potential paté enhancers I remembered the chocolate-balsamic glaze on the top shelf: also a leftover from my last dinner party. Brushed on top of the choux pastry it would make my little savouries look like the real chocolate eclairs. So Japanese fusion filling then. I had some pickled sushi ginger and fresh lemongrass. That's all I really needed.
Mini duck liver paté eclairs with chocolate-balsamic icing, for 10-15 small eclairs
For the duck liver paté
: 150g duck liver
: 1/2 stalk of fresh lemongrass
: 1 tbsp of pickled sushi ginger
: 100g butter
: soy sauce
: sesame oil

For the chocolate-balsamic glaze
: 100g caster sugar
: 50ml balsamic vinegar
: 50ml cider vinegar
: 30g good quality grated dark chocolate

Prepare the eclairs/choux pastry shells.
Wash the duck livers and quickly fry them on a very hot griddle until slightly pink in the middle. Add some sesame oil and a good splash of soy sauce.
Remove the outer leaves from the lemongrass stalk and chop finely.
Place the liver together with the lemongrass, sushi and butter in a food processor to make a smooth and creamy paté.
To make the glazing, gently heat the vinegar and the sugar until the sugar has dissolved and simmer over a medium heat for a further 5 mins. Take off the heat and whisk in the chocolate.
Slice the eclairs in half and using a piping bag, fill them with paté and brush some of the chocolate-balsamic laze on top.