Festive chicken liver and sage pâté with toast

For the chicken liver pâté, heat a glug olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat and fry the onion until very soft and translucent, about 10 – 15 minutes. Add the thyme and sage leaves, and fry, a further 1 – 2 minutes, then add the garlic and continue frying, 1 minute further. Transfer the onion mixture from the pan to a blender (you’ll be blitzing the mixture in a while; this is just to free up the pan so long).

Without cleaning the frying pan, add the rinsed chicken livers to it and fry over medium heat, tossing, until almost cooked through (but slightly pink in the centre), about 3 – 4 minutes in total. Don’t overcook the livers or you’ll end up with a slightly grainy texture to the final pâté. Add the livers to the blender with the onion mixture.

Add the sherry/brandy to the pan and simmer over medium heat until only about 30ml (2 tbsp) remains, scraping the base of the pan with a wooden spoon to deglaze. (You don’t want to lose any bits left in the pan, as this will add delicious flavour to your pâté.) Add the reduced sherry/brandy and anything left over in the pan to the blender, then add 70g melted butter and blitz until very smooth. Taste and season well to bring out the flavours, then place the pâté in a serving bowl or jar(s) and smooth the top. Pour over the extra 45ml (3 tbsp) melted butter to create an airtight layer and place in the fridge to chill, at least 2 hours. Once chilled, cover with cling film and store in the fridge.

Remove your pâté from the fridge, 15 minutes before serving to take the chill off, serve the pâté with chargrilled ciabatta toast and garnish with fresh radishes, if desired.