Calves Liver with a Port Reduction
Okay it wasnt completely a reduction.. I got impatient and threw in some cornstarch at the last minute... yes... cheater I am. ;-)
This dinner was inspired by all of the wonderful offal I've been drooling over on a daily basis that Ros over at Living to Eat has been cooking up. I wish I had access to half of the innards she does over there in London. But here in the states... where you're lucky to even find calves liver... chicken and beef (usually frozen!) are about as good as it gets. If I lived in Orlando, I know of a couple of Asian markets where I could get my grubby paws on kidney... but I digress.
Thankfully we have a nice meat market in town that usually carries fresh calves liver. Joy! I love Petty's.
I based this recipe loosely on what I'd read from Ros...
INGREDIENTS
4-6 calves liver slices
flour for dredging
1 onion, sliced
lots of butter (2 tbsp to start)
olive oil (just enough to keep the butter from burning)
1/4 cup Port wine
1 cup beef broth (I cheated and used one of Dave's OXO cubes.. those things are like beef boulion on steroids, I highly recommend trying this stuff to my fellow Yank readers)
METHOD
Dredge your livers in flour.
Fry your livers on both sides until nice and golden... I dont know what was up with mine, but they were sucking up the butter like mad... I think I used almost a whole stick in the end! O_O So if that happens, keep adding a little butter to keep things from drying out. Once your livers are cooked, remove them and keep them someplace warm (I usually shove everything in the oven). Add a bit more butter to the pan and sautee your onions til they are nice and soft. Add Port to deglaze and let simmer for about a minute to burn off the alcohol. Add beef broth, and reduce.... or cheat like me halfway through and mix some cornstarch and water and dump the lot in. ;-)
Serve with the sauce poured over your livers.
Dave also made an attempt at making mushy peas, they didnt turn out exactly as we had hoped.. Dave says he is inclined to think that a different sort of pea is used in mushy peas... anyone know?
posted by Lea | 10/10/2006
11 Comments:
I'd apologise for not getting a proper recipe up on my site but that sounds almost exactly the same as what I did anyway! The only difference is I had a few sage leaves lying around that I chopped and threw in.
Great minds, eh? :D
I often uses OXO cubes too when the fresh stuff isn't easy to get. Who has time to make all their stock themselves anyway?!
You get butter in sticks over there? Over here we get in in 200g cubes.
Eww Liver!!!
For whatever reason I have never been able to get past the mental part of eating such things!
Don't know if you have an African-American neighborhood nearby, but back in Chicago, that was one of the places we could go to to get tongue, calve's brains, and any innard you'd want, really. There's a Chicago butcher shop called, )no kidding) "Moo & Oink" and they had tv commercials with a guy in a pig suit along with a guy in a cow suit. Hilarious. Anyway, Afro-Amer. butchers. That's my suggestion.
Ros: Yes, we get them in 1/4 cup sticks, with little lines on the wrapper paper measuring tablespoons. =) They just started selling them here in cubes, or "1/4 sticks". hehe
Greg: Do you eat hotdogs?
Susan: we mustve been posting at the same time! =)
Excellent suggestion!! I'll have to do some investigating.
I love ya Lea, but please don't make this if we meet up ;) I bet it is wonderful for liver fans though!
Jeff: bah! Youve just never had GOOD liver!
I asked my dad about the peas as he is English, and he said that you can use regular green peas, but "the good mushy peas" are made with marrowfat peas.
Thanks Sara!!!
I'll have to dig some of those up! Maybe it could be something else for me to grow in my garden!!! =D
I'm scared!!
F f f f f f f f f, all we need now is a good Chianti Clarisse!
Good stuff!
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