I met a clairvoyant who told me to eat more organ meats. And who am I to ignore a clairvoyant?
That’s a bit of an unfair way to start a post, because in my gluten-free, dairy-free, often raw-vegan circles where food should always be organic and local and made with love, I meet a lot of natural health practitioners of all sorts. This man was, however, only my second clairvoyant, and the first to call himself such. Others go by mediums or aura readers, which are, admittedly, very different, but related.
And if someone gives you advice that won’t harm you and is based in logic (I’ve been very fatigued, so why not get my iron levels up?), I go with it.
I’ve never really liked liver though. I once made Julia Child’s chicken iver paté with coconut milk and earth balance margarine, though, and it was heavenly. Chicken liver has a silken texture, and it’s not as gamey as other kinds of offal can be. It’s also a whole lot harder to turn to rubber (I did avoid traditional marinated beef heart anticuchos like the plague while in Peru…).
So I’m now in love with chicken liver. And I made lamb liver once, which was okay too though not as mild or creamy.
The basic idea is to sear the meat, then slice it and cook gently in an acidic sauce for a minute to cook through. If you cook big pieces they just taste like…well, not much. You need salt to infiltrate the meat. So smaller pieces are good as long as they’re not falling apart. Think 1/2″ thick slices from whole livers. Or marinate the livers before cooking. The bigger the liver (lamb, duck, etc) the bigger the slices.
The real trick to great liver is to have an acid-heavy sauce (lemon juice or vinegar) with a leafy green or other vegetable added to soak up the meat juices. Just note that as great as liver is for you (iron, minerals, nutrients, etc), it’s high in cholesterol. And they do need a fair bit of salt to add flavour.
Oh, and did I mention chicken livers are dirt cheap? As in $3 a pound at my local Atwater Market butcher? As I’m a texture lover, I’d take them over dried out steak any day. You just rinse them, pat them dry, remove any bloody or fatty or tissue-y bits, and bob’s your uncle.
Here’s my favourite recipe so far. It’s simple, quick, and healthy, unlike most of the deep-fried chicken liver recipes I’ve seen online. I eat it with rice, but it’s traditional on toast in British areas:
Seared Chicken or Lamb Livers with Kale and Lemon
1 lb chicken livers
2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp salt (you can add other spices here if you want, like cumin or coriander, or ground annatto, as I saw in another recipe for braised liver)
freshly grated pepper (about 1/8 tsp)
5 green onions, thinly sliced
2 cups kale pieces
1 1/2 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
Heat oil in a large skillet or pan over medium-high heat. Wash and dry chicken livers, removing bloody, fatty, or tissue-y parts. Add to hot oil. Sprinkle with half of the salt and pepper. Don’t move the chicken for two minutes, then turn and sprinkle with remaining salt and pepper. Sear 2 minutes more. Remove livers to a plate and cover to keep warm for 5 minutes.
Add the white parts of the green onions to the pan and stir for 30 seconds. Add the kale and water. Scrape sticky, tasty bits from the bottom of the pan to simmer in the water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes.
Slice the livers into 1/2″ slices and return to the skillet. They might still be red on the inside. That’s fine because it won’t last: Cook them for two minutes in the liquid. Then add the lemon juice and adjust salt and lemon to taste. Garnish with the green parts of the green onions. Ta da!
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