FRENCH AND FANCY.

Byline: Jim Boyd The Register-Guard

Looking for the perfect picnic food? Or a light meal for a hot summer day? Consider making a fancy French meatloaf such as the terrines and pates that are baked, chilled and served in fragrant slices at Cafe Zenon in downtown Eugene.

Bill Hatch, Zenon's head chef, became interested in the art of charcuterie early in his career and his menu always offers from three to five of these dishes made from ground meat mixed with herbs, spices and brandy or wine.

The terms "terrine" and "pate" have become so blurred over time that they are interchangeable. The terrine got its name from the traditional earthenware mold or dish in which it was cooked, "terre" being the French word for earth. Any terrine mixture cooked in a pastry crust was called a pate, a pie.

Today, however, even the French Charcuterie Code doesn't make a clear distinction and many crustless terrine-style meatloaves, especially those containing liver, are called pate.

I ran into an immediate roadblock when I asked Hatch to provide some recipes I could pass along to readers. The problem? Hatch makes pates in 20-pound batches, three at a time from the restaurant-size recipes in "The Professional Charcuterie Series," a two-volume cookbook that was written by three French charcutiers.

The cookbook's recipe for a country pate, for example, calls for 6.6 pounds of pork belly, 5.5 pounds of pork jowl and 6.6 pounds of pork liver - that's hardly the six-cup size that's standard for home use.

Hatch, however, suggested I turn to one of Julia Child's cookbooks for a home-style recipe.

"You can't go wrong with Julia," he said, and he was right.

"Julia Child: The Way To Cook," a cookbook published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1989, contains one of her simplest pate recipes (see recipe that follows). It's a country pate made from chicken breast and liver that can be pureed in a food processor and mixed with pork sausage that's already ground.

All I had to do was butter the dish and fill it with the meat mixture, because Child's simple recipe doesn't require that the mold be lined with caul fat or other pork fat that might take a week to order from a specialty butcher.

I found when I sliced the loaf that tiny flecks of sausage were pink from the preservative they contain while the rest of the slice was the gray-brown color of cooked meat. I had enough aromatic, garlicky lunchmeat for more than a week's worth of sandwiches and snacks.

A slice of pate or terrine is traditionally served with crusty French bread and mustard, cornichon pickles and nicoise olives. With the addition of a green salad, it is a satisfying meal.

"It's a quick, simple lunch," Hatch said. "Pate, bread, fruit, cheese, bottle of wine - go for a picnic."

The most common mistake a cook can make when preparing a terrine or pate is to underseason the ground meat mixture, Hatch warns.

"When you make the mixture, you generally fry a small piece and taste it to check the seasoning. And because you're tasting it while it's hot, the seasonings are more pronounced," Hatch said. "When it's cooked, you're going to lose some juices and it's going to be served cold. So the seasonings will be muted in comparison to when you tasted it hot. ... You overseason it at that point so it's properly seasoned after it's cooked and chilled."

You can assemble even the most complicated terrine or pate if you own a food processor or meat grinder to chop the meat. So give it a try.

Here's Child's recipe and two for chicken liver pates:

Pate de Campagne

(Country Pate)

This recipe is from "Julia Child: The Way To Cook" published by Alfred A. Knopf. It is for a 6-cup baking dish.

2/3 cup minced onions cooked until translucent in 2 tablespoons butter

1 1/4 pounds (2 1/2 cups) pork sausage meat

3/4 pound (1 1/2 cups) raw chicken breasts

1/2 pound (1 cup) pork or beef liver

1 cup lightly pressed down crumbs made from fresh homemade type white bread

1 large egg

1/3 cup cream cheese or goat cheese

1 medium clove of garlic, pureed

2 to 3 tablespoons good brandy

1 tablespoon salt

1/4 teaspoon each ground allspice and thyme

1/4 teaspoon ground imported bay leaf 

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

The mixture: Puree all the ingredients together in a food processor; or put them through the fine blade of a meat grinder, then beat in a large mixing bowl to blend. To check seasoning, saute a spoonful in a small frying pan, let cool, and taste it. Correct as necessary, exaggerating the flavors since pates are served cold.

Assembling and baking: Pack into a well-buttered loaf pan, cover with buttered wax paper, then with foil, allowing only 1 inch of overhang. Bake in a bain-marie (a separate pan of boiling water) in a 350-degree oven. (Preheat the oven and set the bain-marie on the lower middle level.) It is done in 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours at a meat thermometer reading of 162 degrees - when the meat is pressed, the juices are pale yellow with just a trace of rosy color.

When done, let cool for an hour, then weight down with a twin pan or a board and a 5-pound weight (such as a canned good). When cool, cover and refrigerate - let the pate mellow for a day or two before serving.

Serving: Set the terrine over heat for a few seconds to loosen the pate; pour out fat and juices, and unmold the pate onto a platter. Slice and serve.

Chicken Liver Pate

This Zenon Cafe pate is made by sauteing instead of baking; it's served mounded in a bowl for the guest to dip out and spread on bread.

1 1/4 pound bacon, diced

1 cup diced onion

1 cup diced Granny Smith apple

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1 1/4 pounds chicken livers, rinsed

2/3 teaspoon epices fines (the recipe for this spice mixture follows)

2/3 teaspoon curry powder

1/4 teaspoon ground bay leaf

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1/4 cup Madeira wine

1/2 pound butter, softened at room temperature

1/4 pound cream cheese, softened at room temperature

Salt and white pepper to taste

Saute bacon to render the fat. (Do not allow the bacon to become crisp.)

Add onions and cook until translucent.

Add apples and mushrooms and cook until soft.

Add livers, seasonings and garlic. Cook livers medium (moist and pink in the center). Deglaze the pan with Madeira. Allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Place the liver mixture into the bowl of a blender and blend. Gradually add butter and cream cheese and blend until smooth.

Season to taste with salt and white pepper.

To ensure no lumps remain, pass the pate through a fine mesh strainer into a clean bowl. Press plastic wrap or waxed paper to the surface of the pate and refrigerate overnight.

Epices Fines

This mix can be used to season pates, roasts and stews.

1 teaspoon ground bay leaf

1 teaspoon ground clove

1 teaspoon ground mace

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon paprika 

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon dried savory

1 tablespoon ground white pepper

Combine all ingredients.

Chicken Liver Pate

Two former Zenon Cafe cooks, John Gorham and Benjamin Dyer, now own and operate Viande Meats & Sausage, a charcuterie shop in Portland. They sell a lot of this pate, which is baked in a terrine, unmolded and sliced.

1/2 cup dried currants

3/4 cup brandy

1 pound unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1 tablespoon dry mustard

1 tablespoon fresh garlic, minced

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 pinch cayenne pepper

1 cup pistachios, divided

1 tablespoon salt

3 1/2 pounds chicken livers

Place currants in brandy, allow to soak overnight.

Mix butter in a bowl with onion, dry mustard, garlic, nutmeg, cloves and cayenne. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator until butter firms up.

Line terrine with plastic wrap, allowing extra to hang over the sides. Lightly crush 1/4 cup pistachios and spread across bottom of terrine.

Measure out 1 tablespoon salt. Divide butter mixture into two equal portions, then break each portion into smaller bits. Set aside for use when the chicken livers are pureed.

Place livers in a pot with enough liquid to cover. Over medium-high heat, bring livers to a gentle simmer, poaching until livers are pink in the center but not bloody. Be careful not to overcook.

Drain livers in a colander, reserving 1/2 cup of the poaching liquid.

While still hot, puree livers in food processor in two batches, using half the livers, half of the reserved poaching liquid, half of the salt and half the butter per batch. Spin until smooth and transfer each batch to a mixing bowl.

Add remaining pistachios and the currants with the brandy.

Mix well using a spoon or whisk.

Check salt level, adjusting as necessary.

Gently pour the liver mixture into the lined terrine and fold the sides of the plastic wrap over the top, sealing tightly. Place terrine in refrigerator and allow to set, approximately 6 hours.

To serve, remove from terrine, unwrap and present pistachio side up.

CAPTION(S):

Pate is traditionally served with crusty French bread and mustard, cornichon pickles and nicoise olives. Add a salad and you've got a satisfying meal.