Chicken Liver Pâté with Apple and Date Chutney

Melt 50g of the butter in a large, non-stick frying pan. Add the onion and half the garlic and cook gently for ten minutes.

Add the chicken livers and bacon to the pan and fry them for five minutes.

Now add the red wine, herbs and rest of the garlic. Make sure you tuck the herbs under the livers so you really flavour the pâté. Bring up to the boil, cover and cook gently for 20 minutes or until the livers are cooked - they should be brown all the way through.

Remove the pan from the heat and allow the mixture to cool until lukewarm – if the pâté is too hot when you add the butter, it will split.

Remove the herbs from the cooled pâté and whizz it in a food processor until it is smooth. Alternatively you can press the mixture through a metal sieve – but this takes a little longer.

While the pate is being processed add the butter in a bit at a time. Pour in the brandy and season to taste. Turn the processor off and taste. Spoon the pâté into a serving dish.

Serve the pâté on toast, with some Warm Apple and Date Chutney

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Lotte’s tips

If you are not eating the pâté straight away, it is a good idea to seal it with a layer of melted, clarified butter – about 1cm deep. To make clarified butter, very slowly melt 225g unsalted butter. The fats and solids in the butter will sink to the bottom of the pan and the clear clarified butter comes to the top – pour this over the pâté and leave it to set in the fridge. The butter topped pâté can be kept in the fridge for up to five days. Alternatively freeze it for up to three months.