Making Chicken Liver Pâté for Three by Max Wallis

[A note from the Editors: we've bent the rules a little for this tasty poem, since what could go better with some Chicken Liver Pâté than some freshly prepared melba toast)

Chopped up livers never looked appetising
yet here I am cutting them into chunks
to sauté with some butter. Sort of like how
the idea of a relationship split three ways
could never work. High risk/high gain,
this notion of liver toxicity. 

Four cloves of garlic, crushed; snipped chives;

two sploshes of Armagnac; a dollop of Lurpak light 

and an onion all fried together with chillis and ground up 

mustard seeds and browned liver. Wait until

they are cooked through and blend to a smooth paste. 

It tastes better than the conventional muck. 

Just like we all did. Who knew love 

was not like a heart, but a liver:
three distinct zones. 



Max's first collection Modern Love is shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize 2012. You can read more of Max's work on his blog somethingeveryday.