Chicken livers with sherry & mustard mash

I sat in Italian restaurant having a plate full of delicious coratella and I thought to myself – offal, so tasty and so underrated. I decided that when I come back from holiday I will start to cook more offal dishes, depends on what I will be able to get at the local butchers. As I said several times before I thing we should use as much as possible from the animal that was killed and not waste any single bit that is edible. I love British black pudding, it's Polish version – kaszanka or Spanish – morcilla. I make real beef stock using beef bones that I get from butchers for free, otherwise these would go to waste. In many top class restaurants you will find some dishes made from cheap cuts of meat such as pig’s head. 

When I came back from holiday I came across a offal cookbook "Offal: The Fifth Quarter" , but I still wait for the price drop or at least for some more enthusiastic reviews. What made me to decide to cook some more offal dishes? First of all at the moment I am little bit fed up with any meat I eat – I have tried so many recipes and yes, they are tasty, but not surprising and offal is like unexplored planet to me. Secondly it is my ambition to learn how to cook offal – I will not learn how to do it?! And lastly I think it is not a big deal to buy beef fillet for around £20 per kilogram and cook tasty meal. It is a big deal when you buy the chicken livers for £1.29 and cook such a tasty dinner that you will not even think about beef fillet at all. 

I found new issue of “Good Food” magazine very helpful as it has lovely chicken livers recipe using dry sherry – I never tried it before and have to say when I finished I was really pleased with the result – extremely tasty dinner for around a pound a head. 

Chicken livers with sherry

Serves 2

about 50g butter 

2 medium onions, peeled and sliced  

about 400g chicken livers

50ml dry sherry

100ml chicken stock  

salt

freshly ground black pepper

Melt half of the butter in a frying pan and add the onions. Fry over a low heat until soft, for about 15 minutes. Remove from a pan into a bowl and set aside. Add the remaining butter to the pan and turn the heat up.

Wash the chicken livers, dry with paper kitchen towel, season with salt and pepper and add to the pan. Fry on both sides for about 3 minutes. Next add sherry, bring to the boil and leave it to bubble for about 30 seconds. Add the fried onions, stock, mix and leave it to boil for about 2 minutes, let the sauce to reduce little bit.

This way the bigger livers will stay pink in the middle, the smaller ones will be cooked but still soft. I served them with wholegrain mustard mash and after I took picture I realised that I have some Polish sour gherkins in brine left –they went perfectly with sweetish livers.  

Wholegrain mustard mash

Serves 2

5 medium potatoes, peeled, boiled and drained

tbsp of butter

2 tbsp of wholegrain mustard

50ml milk

Mash all the above until smooth and serve immediately.