Although chopped liver may have a reputation for being ordinary or second-class, I think it is anything but! I have loved this rich and toothsome Jewish-American version of pâté since I was a kid. A delicious chicken liver & herb crostini appetizer I recently tried at Corso Trattoria reminded me how much I love chopped liver. So I decided to make a batch.
Since one of the liver's jobs is filtering out the body's toxins, it seemed extra worthwhile to make sure that the livers I used were from the healthiest animals possible. Finding organic chicken livers proved a tad challenging but after making a few phone calls, Whole Foods came through. They had just ordered a bunch in response to customer demand -- apparently I was not the only one requesting organic chicken livers - go figure...
The recipe below is one I'd clipped a while back from Martha Stewart Living (the irony is not lost on me but she often has good Jewish recipes.) I consulted several other recipes online and in my Jewish Holiday cookbook before getting started and found them to be nearly identical to Martha's recipe. The main difference between them was that Martha's recipe calls for you to cook the livers in the same pan as the onions, while the others direct you to broil the chicken livers.
This recipe also calls for rendered chicken fat (a.k.a. schmaltz) although I am sure you can substitute oil or butter if you don't have any schmaltz on hand. Luckily, I had roasted a chicken recently and saved the schmaltz for just this purpose. I did this by letting the chicken stock cool down completely in the fridge and simply skimming the hardened fat off the top.
I'd recommend trying to find pasture-raised eggs from a local farm. If you can't find those, try to find free range and/or organic from a local farm.
Serves 8
Ingredients
* 1/4 cup rendered chicken fat (schmaltz)
* 2 medium onions, chopped
* 1 pound organic chicken livers, trimmed and rinsed
* 2 teaspoons coarse salt
* Freshly ground black pepper
* 1/4 cup Marsala wine
* 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, washed, dried and coarsely chopped
* 2 large eggs (try to find pasture-raised from a local farm), hard-boiled
* Bread or crackers for serving
Directions
1. Heat the chicken fat in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring often, until they are translucent - 8-10 minutes.
2. Add the livers and sprinkle with salt and pepper then cover and cook, stirring often, until cooked through - about 12 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
3. Place skillet over medium heat and deglaze with the Marsala and thyme. Cook, stirring, until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Let cool completely.
4. Pour the pan juices, liver and onion mixture, and hard-boiled eggs into the bowl of a cuisinart or blender (you can also do this the authentic way, using a cleaver, if you prefer). Pulse the mixture until coarsely chopped and season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve on crackers or toast. Batampte!
You might also like:
- The Bitter Herb - Make Your Own Horseradish
- Beef Short Ribs with Root Vegetables
- The 7 Secrets to Perfect Potato Latkes
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4 comments:
Eve, nice recipe, I'm going to make some CCL after grilling the livers in one of those non-stick grill pans w/all the holes...Made plenty of fresh schmaltz for it, too.
I saw an intriguing recipe that said to prepare the schmaltz w/bits of chopped apples. then strain them out...Maybe next time?
--JO
They may suggest broiling the liver as a method of koshering it.
I just wrote a post about schmaltz and I used your photo with a link-back. Hope you don't mind- if so, let me know and I'll take it down!
: )
Like Stamp, I also used your Shmaltz photo. If you have any objections I'll remove it.
BTW, According to halacha (Jewish law) the liver has to be soaked, salted and roasted over a fire or grilled before use.
It is technically treif when raw as it is soaked in blood. All tools used to roast liver should be used exclusively for that purpose.
Please note that cooking liver in any other way is forbidden according to halacha and will turn the pans and kitchen tools treif.
The Rabbis discuss an old Polish tradition of placing raw chicken livers on the saucepan lids of the chicken soups on the fire on Friday afternoon before Shabbos. The conclusion is that this is also forbidden even though the practice was apparently quite wide spread amongst less educated Polish Jewish women of the 19th and erly 20th century.
Here in Israel you can buy ready flamed whole livers and minced in the supermarkets. I assume if you go to Orthodox areas in America you can get the same thing there.
Thank you for the recipe. Reb, what about hot smoking / cold smoking?
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