Pt. 4 Cooking with Offal - Not Your Parent’s Liver and Onions

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the meal Liver and Onions? For anyone under a certain age, they have likely never tried it, or even considered trying it. And for older generations, this meal seems to be met with complete love and fond memories or a deep hatred.

If you take the time to prepare liver correctly - prep it, cook it to the right temperature, etc - it can be truly delicious! My experience with making it confirms that. The pre-cook prep time does take a bit of planning, however overall this can be an easy weeknight dish that comes together pretty quickly.

An important first step to note - soak the liver in a milk product. It can be milk, buttermilk, yogurt, etc but you will want to allow the livers to soak at a minimum of an hour, ideally 2 hours plus. Why you ask? Liver can have a metallic taste, kind of iron-ish if you will, to it and is balanced out by the milk. It can also help remove any impurities in the blood in the liver as well. I covered my livers in plain Greek yogurt and let them sit while I prepared everything else.

To add some nice flavor to the livers, I wanted to cook them in pork fat. I got a nice slab of Pancetta and sliced it into 1/2 inch cubes. I let some of the fat render out of the Pancetta on the stove top, and then I removed the Pancetta to use later, leaving behind the residual fat in my pan.

When it was time to cook the livers, I made a dredge using flour, panko and freshly cracked salt and black pepper. I pulled the livers out of the yogurt, wiping off any excess, and coated them in the flour mixture. I added a pat of butter to the pancetta fat and pan fried the livers. It only takes about 2-4 minutes per side, so the cooking process happens really quickly which was nice! When you lay the livers in the pan, do it carefully so you aren’t tempted to reposition before flipping. The less you move them, the easier it is to get nice, brown crispy sides.

Once the livers finished cooking I just removed them from the pan and set them on a rack to cool and let any grease drip off so they didn’t get soggy!

While all of this was going on, I also had some brussel sprouts started in the oven. I peeled any tough outer leaves off, sliced them in half and covered them with olive oil, salt and pepper. I put these in a 425 oven and they cooked for about 15 minutes while I was working with the livers. When the brussels started to look a little softened, a took the pancetta (remember when we set it aside from rendering it in our pan) and added to the brussels along with a drizzle of maple syrup. I put the pan back in the oven for roughly 10 more minutes until everything became golden brown and caramelized.

Time to plate! I put a bed of fresh spinach on my serving plate first and let it wilt under the heat of the livers - which I set on top. I topped the livers with some freshly diced parsley from my garden and of course onions, but I wanted to do something a little different for that. I pan fried shallots until they were crispy and golden and put them on top of the liver. I added my brussels to the plate and Voila!

Liver is one of the most nutrient dense protein options out there, and can be truly delicious. Give it a try and let me know what you think! This will make a believer out of you, I know it!