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1
Put the white wine, brandy and HALF the port (50 ml) in a small pot with the onion, garlic and thyme. This will be about 1 cup liquid.
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2
Simmer until reduced to 1/3 cup or just over. (It can be hard to judge this, especially with the onion bits in it. Just tilt the pot, and take a guess!).
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3
During that time, melt the butter -- be generous; the usual cream is not added to this recipe. You need enough butter so you have butter left in the pan when the livers are done.
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4
Fry the cleaned chicken livers over fairly high heat in the butter, until they are just pink on the inside. Do not overcook -- cut a few open to see degree of done-ness. This will take about 10 minutes, and stir often.
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5
Put the chicken livers in a processor with ALL of the butter left in the pan, and then add the boiled-down liquor. If you used thyme sprigs like I did, you'll need to pick out the sprigs first.
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6
Add the salt and pepper.
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7
Whizz the livers. At this stage you'll need the extra port. Chuck it in, and whizz until you have a quite soft spread, too soft to use at this stage. (It will firm up in the fridge).
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8
And this is where I am not sure of how much port I used extra! The 50 ml should be enough to make the liver spread reach an almost runny consistency, but if not, add more. Taste -- I used flaky sea salt and have no idea how much was needed.
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9
When the liver spread is velvety smooth, scrape out into a bowl, and fork in the nuts. Cover, cool, and then leave in fridge to firm up.
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10
The spread develops great flavour over the next day. Can be kept and used for up to a week.
