Liver polarises people, you either love it or hate it, there really is no middle ground… The thing is, lots of people hate liver but eat pate’ so I’m not sure how that works, because the flavour of the pate comes from the liver???
Anyway, this use to be a very cheap go to meal when I was a student at UNI and I was fortunate enough to live with someone who also enjoyed it! It should always be served with mashed potatoes and peas 🙂 Well that is my story and I’m sticking to it!
I now only use Organic Liver, which is only $8kg (so still a very cheap meal) because of what the liver does in the body. It is pretty important to me to only eat organic, and to be honest it tastes so much better. My Organic butcher also had beef liver, which is such a treat, as I think it has a much nicer flavour than lamb’s liver, but Lamb’s fry is the usual and it is what dad prefers, so now I use half and half in my dish and only serve him the Lamb’s fry.
In my UNI day’s I use to just use all the liver and cook it up basically till all the flavour is out of it and in the gravy, now I do that, but give the cooked out liver to the cat and have the gravy/bacon in the fridge and just cook a few pieces of fresh liver so they are nice and tender and melt in your mouth, then heat up the gravy with it and serve.. You may think it is a waste, but this way you have nice “presentation” pieces of liver that are tender and sweet and you can use all the odd bits to flavour up the gravy… win, win!
Ingredients
1 kg of Organic Lambs Fry or Beef Liver or 500g of each your choice (make sure it is fresh)
500g Milk
300g of Bacon
1 cup of Plain Flour
1 – 2 Beef Stock cubes or stock powder
4 cups of Boiling Water
Salt and Pepper
Coconut Oil for frying
50g of Butter
Method
1. Place 1kg of liver in a large bowl, cover with milk and leave for a few hours or overnight in the fridge.
2. Remove the liver from the milk (put the soaking milk to the side we will be using some later) Skin the liver the best that you can… it is better to remove the sinew as it can make the liver tougher, but you can leave it on if you couldn’t be bothered.
3. Slice the meaty part of the liver into thin slices, the thinner the better and the other pieces you can cut them the best you can. There are generally two parts to each liver, the nice meaty part (thinly slice to eat) and the part with all the valves in it (use that to make the gravy).
4. Chop up bacon into 5 – 10 cm pieces and lightly fry in the pan.
5. Remove bacon from pan, when lightly cooked, not crispy and place on a plate.
6. Place flour, salt and pepper into a large bowl and toss the rough cuts of the liver in the flour.
7. Lightly fry the liver in coconut oil until golden just cooked and remove from the pan and place on the same plate as the bacon.
8. To the empty frying pan, add butter, 2 Tablespoons of the seasoned flour you tossed the rough liver in and the beef stock and cook in the frying pan for about 2 – 3 minutes, while the kettle is boiling the 4 cups of water.
9. Add the boiling water immediately and whisk while doing it… the gravy will be runny, but don’t worry it will get thicker
10. Add the roughly chopped liver and bacon back into the gravy mix and turn down the heat to a slow simmer, let it simmer slowly for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour. This will allow all the yummy flavour of the live and bacon to go into the gravy.
10. When the gravy is nearly ready, toss the thin slices of liver into the seasoned flour and fry them in small batches in a another saucepan. Don’t cook the liver too much or it will become tough.
10. Remove the cooked out liver from the gravy and add in 1 cup of the milk that the liver had been soaking in and allow to cook for 5 minutes. Place the overcooked liver in a container for your dog/cat… or you can still eat it, it will just be very tough.
11. Place the thinly sliced pieces of liver back in the gravy pan that just have the gravy and bacon in it and allow to cook on a gently simmer for 5 – 10 minutes, no longer.
12. Serve with fluffy mashed potato and fresh peas, frozen are ok it you can get nice organic ones. 🙂
For some of you that have never tried liver this way please give it a go. It is a very cheap, hearty meal and I always feel amazing the next day because of the hit of iron and extra minerals that my body always needs! Liver is cheap, just give it a go, you don’t know until you have tried it.
Please let me know how you go, or what you think of my recipe, I’d love to hear from you!
Enjoy Irresponsibly!
Liz x
Liz xx
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I love pate a bit more than I like fried liver but mainly because the texture is so light. I’ve only had fried liver once and it was quite chewy so perhaps I should give it another go 🙂
Oh Yes do, its just like steak the longer you cook it the tougher it gets 🙂 Liz xx
I know what you mean, I like pate but am less fond of liver. I think the liver flavour is lessened by the addition of lots of butter in the pate. But I’d still try this! 😀
I think you would Lorraine, especially if I made it for you 🙂 Liz xx
Nope…. No deal, cannot handle this dish at all Liz. Lamb’s fry makes me get my gag on hardcore. Charming I know. LOL! 🙂 When I was an apprentice and the chefs used to make me try everything, working with the liver when raw was hard enough, then eating it in puree form. Gahhh! The eyes watered and everything. Admittedly I havent tried again since, perhaps my taste buds have matured. :)I shall have a go and let ya know.
LOL…. I just don’t understand… it taste so good… but unfortunately I am in the minority! xx