Monday, August 4, 2008

I ate some ofal and liked it!!!

Calf's Liver with Little Onions, Sage and Aged Vinegar.

Last weekend I picked up my meat order in our local Taco Bell parking lot. Yeah, kinda ironic when you think about it. When I picked it up though I asked Elisa if she had any extra meat that we could buy. She told me about the rib steaks and them mentioned that she had some liver as well. I was so excited!!! She actually gave me 3 packages of liver for FREE!

I had just picked up the book that I had ordered from Barnes & Noble and was reading it on our way and their seemed to be a really cool recipe for liver! Check out this book,The River Cottage Meat Book For anyone who is interested in meat and the way that it should be, not the way it is. This is the book for you! In the first couple of chapters I was able to learn things that made this book so worth the money!

Now, just to let you know I grew up with a Mom that was from England during wartime. When we ate meat it was cooked. Dammit was it cooked!!! I remember eating liver as a child boiled up in some tomato type sauce. If I didn't eat it that night guess what was waiting for me at breakfast??? Needless to say I hated liver!!!

My oldest daughter always loved it and as a baby it was probably one of the first foods that she really ate. T. would cook it up for her and the 2 of them would just chow down. Personally the smell of it always made me a little nauseas!

Anyway, tonight T. Actually cooked it up for us and it was delicious! Nothing like I remember it being. The texture was still a little odd (creamy as my oldest one described it) but not entirely bad!

Would I do this again? You bet. I truly liked the flavor of it. I will need to get used to the texture only because it is something different!

Calf's Liver with Little Onions, Sage, and Aged Vinegar (from the The River Cottage Meat Book)

Ingredients:

About 1 pound very fresh calf's liver
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
2 dozen baby onions, peeled but left whole
about 5 whole garlic cloves, peeled but left whole (we added this, not original to the recipe)
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
Scant 1/2 cup aged vinegar (I used balsamic)
2 dozen sage leaves

Directions:
  • Cut the liver into slices 1/3 inch thick and trip out any course tubes, then set aside.
  • Heat 2 Tbsp of the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over a low heat.
  • Add the onions and sweat gently. They mustn't take color quickly but should brown gradually as they cook, so that after 20 minutes the outside is nicely caramelized to a dark brown color and they are sweet and tender all the way through. Transfer to a warm dish and keep warm.
  • Add a touch more oil to the pan and turn up the heat so that it sizzles.
  • Lightly dust the liver with the seasoned flour and lay them in the pan. For liver nicely pink on the inside, turn after 2 minutes and cook the second side for just 1 minute.
  • Transfer to a warm plate while you finish the sauce.
  • Deglaze the pan with the vinegar, scraping up any crusty morsels from the base as the vinegar bubbles and reduces.
  • When you have about a Tbsp of sauce left, trickle it over the liver.
  • Heat up another small bit of oil and fry the sage leaves, turning them as they become crispy (this only takes a few seconds).
Here is something totally off the liver thing...pictures of the dogs!!!

See how much the puppy has grown...he's the 6 month old on the right!!!

This is why we have dogs...kids and their dogs have an incredibly precious bond. This is my youngest one just cuddling with the puppy!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

13 comments:

Brittany said...

Here I was,getting reay to comment in my sheer inability to try liver, no matter how tasty you make it look...but I can't. That last picture is the cutest thing ever!

Anonymous said...

oh my goodness this all over the food blogs right now. i'm not crazy about live at all but urs looks appealing, i think! :) Good for you for making it and liking it!

taste memory said...

omGosh the sweetest pix of the two cuddling!

i want that tile floor~that color/texture will hide everything that treads upon it@ my house! (i have WHITE tiles...eww....)

glamah16 said...

If done right it can be amazing. I think to many of us were put off by bad experinces when young. As adults we owe it to ourselves to give it another chance.

That dog just as big as th child! What are you feeding them.;-)

grace said...

you are a braver and stronger woman than i! offal is one type of food that i can't bring myself to consume. :)
meanwhile, that photo of your daughter and your dog is adorable. :)

Anonymous said...

I used to eat quite a bit of liver, especially with onions - when growing up as a wee lad in England. My favorite of all time though is Chicken liver, especially in a pate.

The offal that scares me is stomach. eww.

Judy@nofearentertaining said...

Hey Brittany-Truly that liver was good. I was a liver hater! That picture is cute isn't it!

Hi Bren-It really was good!

Hey taste memory-Isn't that the cutest? I love that floor. I get all sorts of hidden crap on it weekly. It hides everything!!!

Hey Courtney-I thin your right. We need to get rid of those bad memories! Look at the size of him (6 months old) he eats whatever he wants the beast!!!

Hey Grace-I was with you until yesterday! I love that pic too!

Hi Matt-My oldest daughter used to love chicken livers fried up. She would eat them by the pound for breakfast!!! Yeah, I'm with you on the stomach, brains (not sweetbreads) as well!!!

Dharm said...

Now that sounds offaly delicious Judy! That pic of your dog and daughter cuddling is TOO precious! Or should I say Offaly Precious??!! Sorry about being offaly punny....!!! :)

Thistlemoon said...

You are more brave than I am. When I lived out in AZ, I had enough offal to last a lifetime. :)

Awwww...she looks so sweet with the doggie!

Mike of Mike's Table said...

Glad to hear you liked it--I can certainly see why! Also, those pics are adorable

Anonymous said...

Really? You liked it? The photo is pretty, but the smell of liver cooking just turns me right off. I'll have a cuddle with the kid and dog, though! ;)

Jeanne said...

As a kid, I despised liver, but when I discovered liver with bacon and onions on baked potatoes as a student that all changed - now I *love* it! Yours sounds positively divine :)

Pumpkin said...

I like liver, but am TERRIFIED of cooking it!
This doesn't look too intimidating, though... perhaps I'll give it a shot.