chicken liver paté with oats

Do those up there look appealing or what? This is my latest invention that will soon be taken up by all the most daring restaurants and caterers and sweep the nation in my mind.

True story: I dreamt this. That's right. I woke up a little bit confused because the part about presenting them in pop-up cards didn't make sense. I woke up thinking,"But the card has to fold flat and so that wouldn't work down here in the real world." How odd that something wet as tzatziki and three dimensional as liver balls does work in pop-up cards in the dream world. So I narrowed down the idea to just the deep-fried breaded chicken liver pate held together with oats. It occurred to me later this is a little bit like haggis, minus all the other offal, and not being lamb, of course.

I did not know if the liver should be processed before or after cooking it. I still don't know which is best. I do know this makes the most unappealing sludge I've ever seen. Like poo balls. The adhesive quality of the oats works fine. I also added my own sourdough breadcrumbs. The flavor is very mild in spite of the fresh and dry herbs I added in abundance, thyme, sage, and summer savory.

I almost included cornmeal but didn't.

Almost included egg in the mixture but didn't.

Dust in flour, drench in egg/milk, dredge in Panko. Deep fry @ 350℉ / 175℃ for just a few minutes, if even that.

Yogurt tzatziki is the perfect accompaniment.

Edit: Oh! I forgot. Diced half a large white onion and fried it in butter. I was distracted and the onion burned a little bit. It soaked up all the butter so I added more. Then crushed garlic and the trimmed chicken livers. Piled in the herbs to excess. Removed from pot and used the same pot to cook oatmeal. As the oatmeal cooked I saw it needed more liquid. Instead of water I added red wine which I intended to include with the liver. The combination of cooked wine and butter is extraordinary. I wanted that combination included in my mixture. Here, it's added to the oats, not the liver, the two things, oatmeal and liver with onions would be processed together eventually.

When I bought the chicken livers (Bell and Evans from Whole Foods freezer) I forgot that I used the last of the oatmeal I had on hand to prepare a dry mixture in advance. That mixture was shown down there ↓ a few posts ago. It contains a bunch of trail mix and dried fruit. It also contains cinnamon, salt, and brown sugar. I can pick out the nuts and fruit but can not do anything about the cinnamon and brown sugar. Too bad. Used it anyway. This might account for it not having a heavy chicken liver taste.

If I were to adjust the mixture that remains before deep-frying it into little balls, I will consider diced bacon along with all the bacon grease. Possibly more wine, depending on how much I choose to loosen the mixture.

Edit II: There was a lot of mixture remaining. The next day I did add diced fried bacon, and ground corn (popcorn) cooked in chicken broth and wine. White wine this time. With more butter. This diluted the liver flavor further and enhanced it with polenta flavor. It pretty much doubled the amount. It formed into balls easily, firmed when chilled, and deep-fried to dark golden brown within minutes. I find it utterly delicious. I'd be pleased to serve this with a thicker tzatziki sauce for nearly any kind of gathering.