Chicken and duck liver pâté

A classic appetizer that looks good on the festive table and is also very easy to prepare. It's not something you would eat often, as it's very rich, but Christmas is the time to treat ourselves. Rabbit liver is also very good in pâté. This pâté is very basic and general, you can use only one kind of liver and also other herbs, the recipe is appliable to a wide range of ingredients.

Ingredients:
750gr of chicken and duck liver - 50/50
2 small shallots
200gr of butter
120ml of cognac, marc or brandy
Leaves from 2 sprigs of thyme
1 cup of whipping cream
Salt, pepper

Carefully wash and clean the liver, cut off any hard parts and cut each liver into about 3-4 pieces. Pour half of the cognac over the liver and let stand for an hour. In a heavy pan melt about 100gr of butter and sauté the shallots that you have cut into thin rings until they become soft. Add the liver along with the thyme leaves and sauté for about 10 minutes on medium flame, stirring occasionally. Pour in the leftover cognac, season with salt and pepper. After about 2 minutes turn off the heat and let cool for 10 minutes.
Pop the whole lot into a food processor, add the cream and blend until completely smooth. Pour the pâté into serving bowls. Melt the leftover butter and pour over the pâté. Decorate with bay leaf, peppercorns or thyme. Let cool in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

Serve with bread and cranberry sauce or jam.

Gravad lax

I make my own gravad lax at home. The ones that are sold are either full of preservatives or very expensive. Marinated salmon takes 5 miutes to make and can be eaten in 24-48 hours. Why buy those prepackaged ones then??

Ingredients:

1 kg of salmon fillet - I proportionally reduce ingredients if there is less salmon

4 tablespoons of sea salt

2.5-3 tablespoons of powdered sugar

2 tablespoons of freshly ground black or white pepper

4 tablespoons of dill

Preparation:

Cut the fillets in portions if needed. Mix salt, sugar, pepper and dill. Coat the fish with this mixture on the side where there is no skin. Put the fish skin down on a plate, cover with alfoil or plastic foil and refrigirate. You should turn the fish around once if the fillet is very thick. After 24-48 (it depends on how well marinated you want the fish to be, I like it slightly "raw") take the fish out of the fridge and cut it into thin slices. Use a very sharp knife!

You can also freeze the marinated salmon and defrost it in the fridge.

This time I served the gravlax as a tartar on a crispy potatoe cake with sour cream.

A simple appetizer

Bliny (Russian pancakes) with sour cream and salmon caviar. The bliny dough contained yeast and buckwheat flour, which is a very old fashioned way to make traditional bliny.