Monday 6 June 2011

What We Ate Last Night : Venetian Liver



I am partial to a little bit of liver. I love the stuff. I was such a fussy eater as a kid, but for some reason I always ate my liver. I grew up eating lambs liver, potatoes and peas. Although my dad used to overcook the liver, well it was the 70’s. I now prefer it a little pinker these days.
Some of my most loved dishes are rather liverish. A quickly seared calves liver and mash is a dish made in heaven for me. Deviled chicken livers on toast or made into a creamy pate.
Oddly enough pigs liver I rarely eat, as it generally has no taste, maybe that is more to do with the pigs than the liver itself.
The Italians love their liver as well, or should I say the Venetians. I’ve seen many different versions of this dish, but the most simple is the one I cooked last night. Although I used lambs liver as it was in the fridge. Normally this is done with baby tortured cows liver, as Cartman once said.

You will need :

Liver, as much as you want. Dusted with seasoned flour.
Finely sliced onions
A few knobs of butter
Olive Oil
Seasoning
Finely chopped parsley

  1. Sweat off the onions in the butter and olive oil until you feel no resistance when you squeeze them
  2. Remove from pan
  3. Dust the liver with seasoned flour. Add more of the butter to the pan, and when it is foaming add the liver
  4. Cook for a minute or so on each so, depending how pink or how thick it is
  5. Add the onions back to the pan
  6. Add a tiny amount of water. Bring to a simmer, Cook out the flour
  7. Simmer down to thicken the sauce. Add the parsley
  8. Season and serve with creamy polenta or mash
  9. Enjoy your offaly meal

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I never say no to livers. Oddly, chicken and pigs' are all I've eaten. For the latter, I generally slice them up and do a quick stir fry with ginger slices taking care not to overcook it.

Will probably give your recipe a go. I suppose the local supermarket stocks lamb liver? Hmm...

Mzungu said...

Mr Chow - Yup you can get lambs liver just about anywhere, but for a treat give veal liver a whirl.
Also your recipe sounds pretty interesting... Anything else to go with it ?