We’re finally nearing the finish line of this tempestuously wild year that upended the lives of everyone the world over. The holidays were much quieter and I couldn’t fly home to California to celebrate the end of year festivities with my family and friends. Nonetheless, I got into the holiday spirit and have been looking forward to Christmas all month. I got myself a cute little tree that’s only half my size, as I couldn’t lug anything bigger up the six flights of stairs to my apartment. I decked the tree and my apartment out in Christmas decorations to add festive and cozy touches to my place. Once Christmas arrived, I marked the occasion by cooking up a feast for myself. I did the traditional French réveillon de Noël (Christmas Eve dinner) complete with multiple courses, wine, and a bûche de Noël. I went all out and tried several recipes that I’d never made before. Surprisingly, all of the dishes were quite a success. The only problem is that I ended up with enough food to feed at least 5-6 people, even though I had scaled down my recipes. The great thing about that is that I have leftovers and don’t have to do any cooking to feed myself for a couple of days.
I had made stuffed quails for my main course and had some leftover stuffing that was too good to go to waste. I had mixed ground pork with foie gras, chestnuts, egg and browned onions deglazed with cognac. I also had some leftover puff pastry that I had used to cover scallop shells filled with a creamy leek and mushroom sauce and scallops. It was the perfect combo of leftovers for making pâté chaud. Though I only had enough left to make about 8 mini ones, the below recipe should be enough to make a couple dozen pâté chauds.
Wishing you all a happy holidays even if it couldn’t be spent alongside loved ones. Stay warm and safe!
Thanks for reading,
Christmas Stuffing Pâté Chaud
Ingredients
- 1 onion, sliced
- 200 g ground pork
- 100 g foie gras cooked
- 1 cup chestnuts
- 2 eggs one for filling and one to brush pastry tops
- salt and pepper
- 5 cl cognac
- 2 puff pastry sheets
Instructions
Filling
- Sauté the sliced onions in olive oil over high heat. Once the onions start to color after a couple of minutes, deglaze with the cognac and let it come to simmering boil. Let it cook and evaporate for about a minute. Turn off the heat and set aside.
- In a bowl, crush the chestnuts with a fork. Then combine with the ground pork, foie gras, cooked onions, egg, and season with salt and pepper to taste. To check if the mixture has been properly seasoned, I microwave a teaspoon of it and add more salt if necessary.
Prepare pastry
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Work with one pastry sheet at time, leaving the other one in the fridge until ready to use. Unfold the puff pastry sheet onto a lightly floured surface. Cut out 6-8 cm diameter circles using a round cookie cutter or drinking cup. Combine the remaining pieces of puff pastry dough, roll it out and cut additional circles.
- Place about a tablespoon of filling onto the center of a puff pastry circle, and top with another circle. Seal by pressing the sides down with a fork. Place the meat pies onto a flat-edged baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush the surfaces with the beaten egg. Bake for about 25-30 minutes. Be sure to watch them during the last few minutes of baking to ensure they have sufficiently browned but not burnt. Transfer them onto a rack to cool once removed from the oven.