Daring Cooks make pâté and bread!

This was my second challenge with the Daring Cooks, and it was a great one. I love pâté, but rarely make it. I enjoy making bread too, but again, I don't do it often enough. The components of this challenge were perfect for a picnic, and that's exactly what I did with them. It was a beautiful day for a picnic, and even though we were downtown, we enjoyed watching the wildlife frolic. There were chipmunks and squirrels, of course, but also groundhogs and raccoons, and a visit to the stray cat colony behind Parliament Hill.

The challenge required us to make one of the given pâté recipes, and you can see it in the upper right corner of the picture above. I chose the vegetarian pâté, with a layer of pesto, seasoned white beans, and a roasted red pepper layer. It was delicious, but as you can see the red pepper layer didn't set. The meat pâté is a combination of caribou, pork and veal liver. I ground the meats by hand with my grandmother's grinder, seasoned it with Marsala, and included figs and pistachios. The caribou was some from my uncle's hunting trip, which I had used here earlier. I wrapped the whole thing in bacon and it was delicious. I served it with Dijon mustard, hot red pepper jelly and cedar jelly. This is a product I picked up in Montreal, and it is delicious with cold meats and cheese. It's a lovely pale green colour, and it does taste of cedar. It seemed the appropriate accompaniment, as our hosts for this month both live in Montreal. They were Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valérie of The Chocolate Bunny, and they did a fabulous job. Thanks!

Oh, and where's the bread, you wonder? It was still in the oven at this point. I'm not known for being early, and I had woken up that day and decided to complete both my Daring Bakers' and Daring Cooks' challenges. I grabbed it out of the oven about 3 minutes before I left for the picnic (which I had already had to make a bit later). I made the Rustic Potato Bread from Baking with Julia. I don't really like potatoes, but I do like this bread. It's really quick, and it's moist and tender with a fine crumb. In fact, I'm going to have some toast right now with the leftovers.

Blog-checking lines: Our hostesses this month, Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie of a The Chocolate Bunny, chose delicious pate with freshly baked bread as their June Daring Cook’s challenge! They’ve provided us with 4 different pate recipes to choose from and are allowing us to go wild with our homemade bread choice.

Recipes after the jump!

Caribou pâté (makes 2 loaf pans full)

1 pound caribou

1 pound pork shoulder

½ pound veal (or pork) liver

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons butter

generous ½ cup Marsala or cognac

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 tablespoon fresh thyme

1½ teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 ounces figs

2 ounces pistachios

1 pound bacon, for lining the loaf pans

Preheat oven to 350℉ and prepare a pan of boiling water large enough to hold the loaf pans. Line loaf pans with bacon slices. Quarter figs and soak in 2 tablespoons Marsala. Saute onion and garlic in butter till softened. Add ½ cup marsala and reduce to about ⅓ cup. Set aside to cool. Grind caribou, pork and liver together, using a coarse blade. Add eggs, salt, pepper, thyme, onion mixture and mix with hands till well blended. If you're not sure about the seasoning, fry up a small amount and taste. It should taste over-seasoned, as serving it chilled mutes the seasoning somewhat. Half fill the lined loaf pan with the meat mixture and then arrange figs and pistachios on top. Fill pan with meat and fold bacon over top. Cover tightly with foil and bake in water bath until juices run clear. This took about 75 minutes in my oven. Remove from water and cool on a rack. Press the pâté by putting another loaf pan on top and adding 3 or 4 pounds of weight. Cool at room temperature for a couple of hours and then refrigerate for 2 or 3 days before slicing. The flavour improves with time, so this is a great make-ahead dish. Unmold and slice to serve.

Rustic potato loaves

This recipe from Leslie Mackie can be found in  Baking with Julia : Sift, Knead, Flute, Flour, And Savor... by Dorie Greenspan. I found this already typed out on Oven Love, so thanks a lot, Natalie!

Makes 2 loaves

1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes (about 3-4)

4 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup tepid reserved potato water (80-90 degrees)

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

4 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Cooking the Potatoes:

Scrub the potatoes and cut them into quarters, peel and all.  Toss them into a 2-quart pot, cover with water, add 2 tsp salt, and boil until the potatoes are soft enough to be pierced easily with the point of a knife.  Dip a measuring cup into the pot and draw off 1/2 cup of the potato water, reserve.  Drain the potatoes in a colander and then spread them out, either in the colander or on a cooling rack over a jelly-roll pan, and let them cool and air-dry for 20-30 minutes.  It is important that the potatoes be dry before they're mashed.

Mixing the Dough:
When the potatoes are cool, stir the yeast into the reserved potato water (if the water is no longer warm, heat it for a few seconds in the microwave- it should feel warm to the touch) and allow it to rest for 5 minutes, it will turn creamy.

Replace the paddle with the dough hook and, still mixing on low speed, add the flour and remaining 2 tsp salt.  Mix on low speed for 2-3 minutes, then increase the speed to medium and mix for 11 minutes more.  The dough will be firm at first and soft at the finish.  At the start, it will look dry, so dry you'll think you're making a pie crust.  But as the dough is worked, it will be transformed.  It may even look like a brioche, cleaning the sides of the bowl but pooling at the bottom.  Have faith and keep beating.

First Rise:
Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 20-30 minutes, at which point the dough will have risen noticeably, although it may not have doubled.

While the bread is proofing, position a rack in the bottom of the oven and fit it with a baking stone or quarry tiles, leaving a border of at least 1 inch all around.  Preheat the oven to 375.  Place a linen towel on a baking sheet, rub the towel with flour and set aside; this will be the resting place for the bread's final rise.  Rub a baker's peel or baking sheet with cornmeal or flour.  Fill a spray bottle with water, set aside.

Shaping the Dough:
Turn the bread out onto a lightly floured surface and, using a dough scraper, cut the dough in half.  To shape each half into a torpedo shape, first shape it into a ball and then flatten it into a disk.  Starting at the end farthest from you, roll up the dough toward you.  When you're on your last roll, stop and pull the free end of the dough toward you, stretching it gently, and dust its edge with flour.  Finish the roll and, if necessary, rock the loaf back and forth a little to taper the ends and form a torpedo, or football.

Second Rise:
Place the loaves on the floured towel, seam side down, and cover them with the ends of the towel or another towel.  Let rise at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Baking the Bread:
When you're ready to bake, spray the oven walls with water and immediately close the oven door to trap the steam.  Turn the breads out, seam side up, onto the peel or baking sheet and transfer them into the oven.  Spray the oven with water again and bake the loaves for 45-50 minutes, or until the crust is very brown, the loaves sound hollow when thumped on the bottom, and, the most important test, the interior temperature measures 200 degrees when an instant read thermometer is plunged into the center of the loaves.  Remove the loaves from the oven and cool on a rack for at least 20 minutes before slicing.  While you should wait for the bread to firm up in the cooling process, slathering this bread with butter while it's still warm is a great treat.

Storing:
The breads should be stored at room temperature.  Once sliced, the bread should be turned cut side down on a cutting board; it will keep at room temperature for about 2 days.  For longer storage, wrap the breads airtight and freeze them for up to a month.  Thaw, still wrapped, at room temperature.

This link has a PDF of all our pâté recipe choices for the month, as well as some bread recipes. Enjoy!