Gourmet cooking for real estate professionals
Want a special but down-to-earth brunch for the coming weekend? Filling and satisfying food, but not heavy and hard to digest? Then try this wonderful recipe that is special all year ‘round. After a late sleep in on a Sunday morning, this makes an ideal tummy healer that sits well as it digests.
This recipe is best when it is served fresh, hot from the pan, or even at room temperature, but it will keep a day in the fridge.
Check this out: if you have never eaten chicken livers, don’t be put off by how they look, or how they feel. Have paper towel handy, a clean soapy dishcloth and drying towel. This, after all, is chicken, and you don’t want to handle chicken at any time without washing your hands, the counters and utensils. Handle your taps with the paper towel, so you never transfer salmonella. It can make you very sick. Cooking kills it, but the raw effects need to be avoided.
The king’s breakfast or brunch
¾ lb. fresh chicken livers – not frozen (buy them a day or two before using, ideally)
¼ of a large Spanish onion, chopped coarsely but a little fine
10 or 12 large button mushrooms, stems removed and chopped separately
Salt, pepper, dry thyme (not the kind that looks like pepper)
Sweet butter
2 Tablespoons Winzertanz (white wine)
Rinse the chicken livers. I use a small colander; drain and pat dry with paper towel. Remove any yellow or green bits of gall with a sharp knife; you will want to leave the chicken livers whole.
In a hot skillet, sauté chopped onion in butter, stirring until onion is translucent. Turn down heat as necessary to prevent burning. Don’t be stingy with the butter, and cook until just barely a golden colour and onions are fully cooked, but not mushy.
Add to onions the mushrooms that you have cut into chunks or quarters and sautéed for only a couple of minutes on high heat; you want the mushrooms just once over lightly. (Martha Stewart cooks mushrooms far too long!) The moisture from the onions and butter should keep the onions from sticking to the pan, but add a little more butter as necessary because you must keep the pan as hot as possible without burning.
Rest this lot in a heatproof bowl. Turn unwashed used skillet onto very high heat and add the chopped chicken livers when butter begins to sizzle, but not burn. You want to scorch the surface of the livers. Don’t touch them for a few seconds. They will appear to stick to the pan, but this is all right.
Reduce heat ever so slightly, add salt and pepper, and dry thyme – just a pinch because dry thyme delivers a very powerful punch; you want the flavour to enhance the dish, not take it over. Turn the chicken livers, one by one, individually. They should still be pink inside. They are cooked at this stage. Do not overcook them. The livers should be moist and juicy. Add the chicken livers to the onions and mushrooms and stir. Keep hot. Although you might want to cover them, keep any cover at a slight tilt; you don’t want to steam them. They will continue to cook in their own heat.
Deglaze the skillet with Winzertanz (the flavour of the ingredients in this particular wine enhance the flavour of the dish), scraping and saving any stuck-on bits, and pour over the mixture in the dish. Serve, piping hot with fresh toast (try cutting off the crusts if you are using buttered white bread toast), or use fresh rye bread, untoasted. Again, perhaps cut off the crusts or even use a large cookie cutter and make bread “rounds.”
All of this preparation has taken less than 15 minutes. It is also great for a midnight snack. If guests are staying over, this brunch will make a delightful surprise for them.
Can be used as a hors d’ouvre if you chop the livers finely, after they are cooked. If you really want to have some fancy hors d’ouvre, process the whole recipe after it is cooked, until it forms a spreadable pate. Top with a piece of raw mushroom. Or using larger button mushrooms with stems removed, use the pate to stuff mushrooms. Top with a sprig of fresh thyme. So YUM!
The working title for Carolyne’s Gourmet Recipes cookbook is From Lady Ralston’s Kitchen: A Canadian Contessa Cooks. This kitchen-friendly doyenne has been honoured and referred to as the grande dame of executive real estate in her market area during her 35-year career. She taught gourmet cooking in the mid-70s and wrote a weekly newspaper cooking column, long before gourmet was popular as it is today. Her ebook, Gourmet Cooking – at Home with Carolyne is available here for $5.99 US. Email Carolyne. Scroll down to the comments at each recipe column. Carolyne often adds complimentary “From Lady Ralston’s Kitchen” additional recipes in the Recipes for Realtors Comments section at REM.
