Finished result: Chicken liver resting on a bed of rocket ...
Originally uploaded by Roboppy and shared using Creative Commons. Awesome.
This week has, to say the least, been interesting. Different, in a strange way. Not all good.
So when W emailed me yesterday lunch and said I had a choice for dinner of pork chops or warm chicken liver salad with a dressing of smoked paprika and sherry, the choice was simple. Homely, comfortable pork chops or exciting tastes and different textures?
I needed excitement, so chicken liver it was.
Now, having grown up in Sweden as a child of the 1970s my impression of liver has forever been ruined by school lunch canteens. Liver is one of those things that I just don't think can be served in a palatable way in a high capacity kitchen where 95% of what they serve is prepared elsewhere and just re-heated on site.
I also have quite disturbing memories from working as an intern at a pate and sausage factory where I on my first day (probably as a mean test of my degree of squeamishness) was asked to unload a pallet of raw pig's liver and prepare it for production... Six hours later with blood up to my elbows and a smell of raw liver in my nose that I could feel would not go away for days I promised myself to never go near raw liver again.
To say the least, I was apprehensive of my dinner choice but resolved in the fact that I needed something new and fun, to feel a bit challenged.
Standing in the kitchen, W opening the package of liver, I did wonder whether I should leave the liver to her and fry myself one of the pork chops. Slimy, slippery pieces of dull red meat with little green pieces of whatever that is (gall?), membrane, sinew and fat hanging off... Let's just say I left the trimming to W.
Fried the livers gently in her lovely Creuset pan, and then blew a fuse while mixing the hazelnut "pesto" to go on the salad. So what should have been a sauce became more hazelnuts with garlic chop than anything else.
Plated it all up, on a bed of rocket with sherry vinegar and then generously applied the hazelnut mix.
As I apprehensively speared a piece of liver on my fork I marvelled over how fiendishly tasty fried liver looks. Perfect golden brown and crispy on the outside, still pink in the middle. I stared the piece of liver down for a while, wondering if, as I put it in the mouth, it would come with that strange grainy texture and plasticky after taste that I recall so vividly (shudderingly) from my school days.
By now W was chomping away, making satisfied little noises. At least one dinner guest was thoroughly enjoying herself.
Taking a deep breath I popped the piece of liver with some salad, a hazel nut and some of the sherry sauce in my hungry gob. Now, while it did taste like, well, liver... (duh) ...something magical must have happened as the nut mixed with the parsley, sherry, lemon juice, garlic, smoked paprika and liver. This is a feast for kings.
Clearly, the bad rep of liver comes from cooks not treating it with the respect it deserves.
The deep, dark taste of the liver was accentuated by the smoked paprika and then cut through by the garlic and lemon juice which was clearly discernible among the tastes. The sweetness of the roasted hazelnut then perfectly slotted in on top, like a gentleman's bowler hat, rounding it all off to an amazing blend of tastes.
Ten minutes later my big bowl was empty, not a piece of liver to be seen anywhere.
As low carb recipes come, this is proper LCHF fine dining! And so quick and simple to make too. If you are getting a bit bored with steaks, eggs, bearnaise sauce and so on I do recommend you give this dish a try.
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