Pork knuckle and liver pate

I prepared this dish in order to increase the intake of collagen from knuckle and nutrient from liver. Both are vital for our health especially for skin, blood vessels and joints. Pork knuckle and liver are eaten a lot in the old days but neglected in recent years for various uncertain modern health claims. It is easy to see that more people these days have trouble with knees and hips joints and need to have replacement operations to fix the problem.

1. Remove meat from pork knuckle and keep aside.

2. Add just enough water to cover pork knuckle, bring to boil with bay leaves, garlic, ginger, star anise 甘草, 陳皮 etc. as you like it. Keep simmering until soft, or place in vacuum pot over night. Repeat cooking the next morning and place in vacuum pot until soft.

3. When cool, take knuckle out and remove all bones.

4. Use blender to mince knuckle meat and 4 times quantities of liver, season generously with salt, 5 spices powder and white pepper.

5. Line a baking or steaming dish with grease proof paper at the bottom. Mix pork knuckle with minced meat and liver, pour into dish until 2/3 full, cover the top with grease proof paper and aluminum foil.

6. Steam, or bake in a hot water bath at 180˚C for 2 hours.

7. When cooked, add pork knuckle cooking liquid into the dish until full, it will fill the gaps in the pate and set as a jelly layer on top. The remaining liquid could be used as soup stock.

8. When set, remove pate from dish, cut into portions and keep in freezer. This way, you could cook a big pot and enjoy the pate in many meals.