Chicken Liver Pate w/ Sage & Brandy (paleo. keto. low carb. gf)

RECIPE BY: AURORA GILBERT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: AURORA GILBERT

Makes 2-3 sml jars

I love pate, I eat it by the spoonful and so does everyone in our house including the dogs - they love it!!

I started making my own pate because I haven’t found a store bought pate that uses clean ingredients, one without any preservatives or ingredients that I wouldn’t even feed my dogs… and it’s actually really easy and quick to make once you get past handling the livers.

I eat pate not only because I love it but also for my iron and energy levels… for my overall health.
I am a conscious omnivore (I eat pretty much all the foods, obviously including red meat) but unfortunately my body is not great at absorbing iron even when I have it with vitamin C (helps absorption), it was especially challenging during my pregnancy with Lila and also postpartum so I have had to supplement alongside ensuring I eat iron rich nourishing foods.

Now pate is loaded with nutrients, it’s high in iron, copper, selenium, protein, folate and B vitamins - especially B12, which great for energy, it has fat soluble vitamins A, D, K and E and even has choline, which helps with cognitive function.
It helps the body fight off fatigue, restores energy levels and it’s a super tasty way to boost your micronutrients and get more nutrient dense organ meats into your life.
I also like to pimp my pate out with some medicinal mushrooms too, this completely optional I’m just addicted thats all.

Note: Contrary to beliefs that your shouldn’t eat liver because it stores toxins they actually neutralise toxins in our body and when we consume liver it assists our body’s own detoxification = win!!

Ingredients:

500g chicken livers, organic preferably
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tbs porcini mushroom, dried
3 sprigs thyme, fresh
8-10 sage leaves, fresh
60mls brandy
250g butter, organic grassfed
1 tbs olive oil
1 tps salt, good quality

 OPTIONAL

1-1/2 tsp medicinal mushrooms, I use SuperFeast Mason’s Mushrooms ‘aurora10’ for a discount

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven 140ºC and place 1/3 of the butter into a tray and allow to slowly melt until separated, this will take approximately 10 minutes. Pull out of oven and strain the milky part of the butter, keep the clarified butter and set aside.

2. Add olive oil to saucepan on medium heat, add chopped onions, garlic porcini mushrooms and thyme leaves, cook slowly until soft, then remove the mixture into a thermomix/food processor.

3. Turn up the heat in the saucepan and add chicken livers and most of the sages leaves. Cook the livers for a couple of minutes on one side then turn over to cook for a couple more minutes on the other side, they should still be pinkish in colour in the middle. Note: don’t over cook the livers or they will have a grainy texture.

4. Turn the heat up to high and add brandy and cook for another minute, then add to the onion mixture in the thermomix/food processor.

5. Add salt and remaining butter and blitz on high until well combined and creamy, approximately 1 minute then scrape down sides and blitz again for 20 seconds.

6. Divide the mixture into jars and then pour the clarified butter over the top and add the remaining sages leaves chopped up, ensure the pate is completely covered by the clarified butter - this will seal and allow the pate to keep for longer in the fridge.

7. Allow to cool then place in fridge to set, the pate can be eaten straight away or the pate will keep for up to two weeks provided the seal is not disturbed and the favours will continue to develop the longer it’s in the fridge.

Note: medicinal mushrooms would go in in step 5.

Enjoy x

Super Gelatinous Bone Broth (paleo. keto. low carb. gf)

RECIPE BY: AURORA GILBERT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: AURORA GILBERT

Makes 3-4 litres

Bone broth is pretty much a staple at our house, it’s our go to for getting more nutrients in or boosting the immune system, which is key with this current nasty COVID19 situation.
It was actually my daughter Lila’s first food (easily digested) when she was 5 1/2 months old, what we used to help Benny, my baby daddy to assist with healing after a bad motorbike accident and what I consumed through pregnancy and postpartum for extra nutrients and for healing connective tissue and skin, I even give bone broth to our dogs.

Bone broth has been past down from generation to generation traditionally for digestive/ gut health and healing the body, when the bones are cooked for a long period of time the nutrients are drawn out producing a collagen rich gelatinous bone broth (use jointy bones) that’s high in nutrients like calcium, magnesium, iron, glutamine, proline and glycine just to name a few… these are building blocks that the body uses to regenerate and heal.
Collagen is the most abundant protein found in the body and unfortunately our body’s ability to make collagen starts to diminish as we age, (awesome, not) which is why we start getting wrinkles, loose lustre in our hair, our nails get brittle, looser sagging skin and everything starts to go south.
Collagen is responsible for anti-ageing, reducing inflammation, joint health and mobility, bone mineral density, healing/ replenishing our hair, skin, nails, connective tissue, gut lining, and muscles.

Drinking bone broth can help to heal and seal our gut lining, which means we are better able to absorb nutrients from our food, supports detoxification and overall it boost our immune system health, being that 70% of your immune system cells are housed in your gut this means your gut health is integral to your immunity!!

That being said, how can you use bone broth;

• drink 1 to 3 cups daily, great for post training or breaking a fast

• add to soup, stews, curries

• cook rice by absorption in bone broth for nutrient dense rice, or cooked and cooled rice

• gravy base

• mashed veggies or potato, great in baby food

• in a marinade

• to braise meat in

• steam/ sauté your vegetables in

Check out ‘favourite things’ for the curry spice mix I use by Love My Earth or my favourite go to bone broth concentrate Gevity Rx.

Ingredients:

1 kg grassfed jointy bones
filtered water, approx 3 litres
1 tbs apple cider vinegar
1 tbs salt, good quality

OPTIONAL
1 tbs medicinal mushrooms
herbs
vegetable scraps
spices, I often use curry spices
seaweed
chicken's feet, extra gelatin
 

Method:

1. Roast bones on high for 30- 45mins.

2. Add bones, apple cider vinegar, salt and any other herbs, vegetable scraps, seaweed etc, then top up with filtered water.

3. Cook in pressure cooker for approx 2-3 hours or in a slow cooker for at least 8 hours.

4. Strain liquid and store in jars.

5. Discard the solidified fat on top or use as lard.

To make a cup of bone broth simply add 2-3 tbs of the gelatinous bone broth to some hot water and stir, I usually add salt to taste and a little butter.

Enjoy x