Scandinavian breakfast board with home-made chicken liver pâté

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 fresh herbs 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 frying 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 you’ll end up with a somewhat grainy texture to the final pâté. Add the livers to the blender with the onion mixture.

Add the sherry 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 of what is left in the pan, as this will add delicious flavour to your pâté). Add the reduced sherry 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 a jar 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.

To assemble your smorgasbord, place cheese wedges on a wooden platter, together with rye bread fingers, gherkins, tomato halves and quarters, smoked trout ribbons twirled into roses, and top with edible leaves and flowers to garnish, if desired. Serve with your home-made chicken liver pâté and lemon wedges alongside for squeezing.