Swapper Profile: Christina Tunnah + Chicken Liver Apple & Bourbon Pâté Recipe

I'm so happy to introduce Christina Tunnah for our next swapper profile. Christina is a rare thing. As both a former boss and a close friend, I've known her a fair few years and can always count on her. And she has two of the best things in a friend...she makes me think, and she makes me laugh. Christina is also a phenomenal cook (her dinner parties are to die-for with the perfect balance of casual fun and amazing food), inveterate world traveler, and avid hiker. She is a SF Swappers veteran, having attended as regularly as her work travel schedule allows since the very first swap. You've undoubtedly shared a good giggle with her at the swaps, and if not some of Christina's past swap items have included Sorrel + Arugula Pesto, Wild Mushroom Relish, Shepherds Pie, Salmon Empanadillos, Kimchi, and produce from her garden. Now you know who I'm talking about, right? Right. So read on for her knock-out chicken liver pâté recipe and more.

Name: Christina Margarita Tunnah

Christina living la vida local in Peru

Home (+ hometown swap): Born in London, England, Berkeley is my home, and San Francisco is my swap town.

How did you first get involved in food swapping? How long ago? I've been swapping with the SF Swappers since Aimee and Stephanie launched it over a year ago. 

What did you make for the last food swap and what inspired your choice? I made Chicken Liver Apple & Bourbon Pâté, and a plum pomegranate tarragon jam.  Usually what is in season in my back yard inspires a recipe. The apple tree, tarragon and bumper plums inspired this last swap’s bootie.

Fresh sage in Christina's garden

What’s your favorite thing about swapping? Tasting the creativity of others and in the potluck pre-swap hour, I get a lot of cooking tips for other dishes.

Who or what most influences your cooking? My mum is a fabulous and curious cook. Growing up in wartime Spain and spending any summers on the family farm, she taught me not to waste any part of the animal or pantry. When we first moved to the States she’d send me off to school with a thermos of paella or coq au vin which solicited “yucks” and horrible teasing from my PBJ class mates. We also lived and traveled in a lot of places as a kid, so I was introduced to many foods since infancy.

What’s your favorite kitchen tool? My Sabatier knife set, a Christmas gift from my brother over 15 years ago.

Your current flavor or ingredient obsession? Persian mint. It’s a fecund little plant so it makes its way into my breakfast yoghurt, tea, cucumber salsa, homemade ice cream, and cocktails.

Biggest food surprise? That East Bay (Oakland and Berkeley) is finally getting the respect it deserves for having great restaurants.

If the Rapture came tomorrow, what would your last meal on earth be? Roast chicken with roast potatoes and parsnips. It’s my happy place.

When I'm not in the kitchen I'm… yard sale hunting, traveling, gardening, and hiking.

Favorite local food experience: Lalime’s, Meal Ticket brunches, Jong Ga House Korean (on Grand Avenue)

Recipe by Christina:

Does it get better than homemade pâté and
fresh bread? Yes, add wine!

Chicken Liver Apple & Bourbon Pâté

I’m a bit of a slappa in the kitchen so the measurements are approximate:

1lb of chicken liver

1 1/2 stick of unsalted butter

Chopped onion (medium)

3 garlic cloves, chopped

3 apples (crisp tart variety), cubed

Fresh sage, chopped

2 Tb bourbon or brandy

2 Tb heavy cream (optional)

Salt and pepper, to taste

Melt ¾ stick of butter in heavy skillet over medium heat. Add onion and sauté till sweated being careful not to burn butter or caramelize onion. Add apple and cook till softened. Add garlic and sage, cook for 2-3 minutes. Put aside in bowl. 

Using the same skillet, melt remaining butter and add chicken livers and cook until only slightly pink color remains in center. Add back the onion mixture. Salt & ground pepper to taste and add bourbon. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Blend in batches until smooth. Add optional heavy cream and/or a few more cuts of butter until a smooth consistency. Poor into serving bowls to set. 

Jam - Cook It! 2012 June Resolution + Summer Peach Jam, Peach Syrup & Bourbon Peach Skin Butter Recipes

When I saw that the June Cook It! challenge was making jam, I thought "this one will be easy!" I already make a lot of jam but wanted to try something new and fancy of my own creation. I was busy concocting summery jam recipes in my head: apricot and rose geranium, nectarine with blueberry and lemon verbena, blackberry and rosemary. Those jam dreams will have to wait though, as I have ended up being away from home for the past few weeks and am unable to spend much time in a kitchen. But luckily, I have my June peach project to turn to.

It started with my buying 5 lbs of peaches in order to make some Pickled Ginger Peaches for the June swap. By the time I needed them though, they weren't quite ripe enough and I ended up mutating them a fair bit while blanching and struggling to remove the clinging skins. Off I went for a fresh and riper 5 lbs to work with so they'd look pretty in their jars, and then post-swap turned my attention to the less pretty fruit I'd stowed in the fridge.

Jam was the obvious choice, but looking at all the peels made me think I should do something more with them too. As usual, Punk Domestics led me somewhere I wanted to be. I found a post about Peach Peel Butter that I could easily adapt. Half way through that process I almost gave up and just went with Peach Syrup, but the feeling I could get some more out of those peach skins was persistent, so I went for a variation of the butter too. In the end those 5 lbs of peaches gave me jam, syrup and butter - the most satisfying kind of economy ever.

Recipe for Summer Peach Jam
Makes 6 half pints

6.5 cups peaches, washed, blanched, skinned, pitted and chopped

4.5 cups sugar

¼ cup lemon juice (juice from 1½ lemons)
3 pieces star anise

½ cup water

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
8 ounces of homemade apple pectin

Add sugar to chopped fruit and leave to macerate for a couple hours in a non-reactive pan. This step is optional, but it releases the juices from the fruit which helps it break down more while cooking. Since my fruit wasn't the ripest I left it macerating for about four hours.

Prepare your water bath canner and jars before or just after you begin cooking your jam, so that you can work seamlessly once it is ready. {If you're new to home canning, Local Kitchen's how-to post is great! I also recommend spending some time with the USDA's Complete Guide to Home Canning}

Bring the peaches, sugar and lemon juice to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and use a potato masher to break the fruit up. Add water and 3 pieces of star anise and continue cooking and stirring regularly to prevent scorching. Even though homemade apple pectin is different from commercial pectin in that it can cook for longer, I added mine after about an hour on the stovetop and only needed an additional 10-15 minutes before it began to thicken up nicely. Add the salt just before removing from the burner.

Fill hot jars, leaving a ¼-inch headspace. Use a chopstick to remove any air bubbles, and wipe rims with a clean, damp cotton dish towel. Add lids and screw rings to fingertip tightness only. Process in water-bath for 10 minutes and then remove from canner. Let rest on a wire cooling rack for 24 hours. 

Recipe for Peach Syrup and Bourbon Peach Skin Butter
Technique for Peach Skin Butter adapted from this recipe

Peach skins

Sugar

Water

Maker's Mark (or similar quality) bourbon

Weigh the peach skins leftover from your jam-making, and add the same weight of sugar to a non-reactive pan or glass bowl. Stir and leave to macerate, covered, for 24 hours. You can leave this for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

When ready, place macerated skins and sugar on the stovetop over low heat, adding the juice from ½ lemon plus 2 cups of water to start. Leave to cook, stirring occasionally and adding water as it thickens to keep it from burning.

Turn the heat off and cover overnight.

If you want syrup as well as butter, on the second day, add a few cups of water and cook until it has incorporated to become syrup, which should be a gorgeous color and very fragrant. Pour through a strainer into bottles, reserving 4 oz of the syrup if you're going to make the butter. Add the reserved syrup back into the skins, and keep cooking it down and adding water for another day. 

If there are still some stubborn chunks of skin as it approaches the consistency of fruit butter you like, use an immersion stick blender for a couple minutes to smooth it out and make it more uniform. 

When done, turn off the heat and stir in a capful of Maker’s Mark bourbon.

Since I was leaving town, I decided to process the one half pint jar in my handy 4th burner pot. If that's your chosen rout too, process for 10 minutes in the water bath, then turn off the heat and leave it in the hot water for another 5 minutes with the top off.

The beauty of making the syrup and butter is you don't really need a recipe, just match the weight of your peach skins and your sugar, and keep adding water. For me, 1 lb 14 oz of skin produced 12 ounces of finished syrup and 1 half pint of butter!

This was an extra enjoyable project since I got to use up every last scrap of fruit, plus try out some new techniques. And that's what this Cook It! year of challenges is all about right?