Saturday, May 13, 2006
Chicken Livers with Marsala Sauce
My boss' leaving-do yesterday la
sted longer than I had thought and I didn't come home until 8 o'clock, too late for fancy cooking. At first I was going to make risotto, but changed my mind at the last minute. The stuff in the fridge looked a lot more Asian than Italian, so I opted for a quick vegetable stir-fry with fried rice. It takes less than 20 minutes from fridge to plate, so it was the perfect thing to save the evening. By 8.30 we were happily sitting on the couch dinner in hand, movie on the telly, enjoying a relaxed start to a relaxed weekend.Although I enjoyed an evening out, I must admit I did miss my kitchen and was dying to find out who had won this week's series of Great British Menu. I was determined to make up for these two deficits today. The repeat of yesterday's show was on BBC 1 this morning and I watched the whole thing sitting on the sofa with a cup of coffee, which actually made a nice change from my usual listening and glancing over from the kitchen. Well, I say kitchen, but we actually have a kitchen/living room, a large living room with a sort of oversized kitchenette along the entire back wall. This is bad when I mess up like I did with the microwaved brownie, but comes in quite handy when I want to watch telly or am using a recipe from my computer.
In any case, this morning I was sitting there, watching Great British Menu thinking that life could not be greater when none other than Rick Wakeman proved me wrong. Before I switched to the telly, we had been listening to Rick's Place on Planet Rock, a weekly show hosted by the former Yes keyboard player. He holds a competition every week where he asks listeners to find a certain number of bands or artists with a common attribute. Today's challenge was to come up with 6 bands that were spin-offs of bands that Rick had been in. At first I wasn't even going to enter, that's how hard I found it. But then I decided that I was not going to give up this easily and got on with it. And guess what? I WON!!! I don't know what, but I won that's all that counts. The feeling when I heard Rick say my name was incredible. I felt like a child at Christmas.
And with these happy thoughts in mind I jumped on my bike and went shopping. Unfortunately, bad weather cut my excursion short. I was not in the mood for repeating last week's rainy market experience and instead grabbed my two boxes of crisps and the bagful of bits and pieces from my everything-you-never-needed-store on Meath Street and cycled home as quickly as I could. Somehow I felt more like an overloaded donkey than a young urban shopper, but who cares, no one saw me. Besides, there's plenty of time for looking good when we go check out Dun Laoghaire market tomorrow - if it's dry that is.
Tonight's dinner was a bit of a paradox. On the one hand I was all eager to cook something a bit special, on the other hand, I had to somehow construct it from what I had. And that wasn't really a lot. Inspired by today's viewing of four course dinners on TV, I decided to make several courses. As a starter I defrosted a package of chicken livers that I had frozen a few weeks ago. Lofty really likes his chicken livers and they're really quite difficult to get here in Dublin, so I put some effort into the dish and cooked them with sage and caramelised onions in a Marsala sauce. And apart from the fact that I was stupid enough to freeze what I had bought for three people in one package and now had way too much I was quite happy with the outcome. If you like chicken livers, I do encourage you to try your hand at this recipe. It's quick, simple, tasty and perfect for guests. Just make sure that the livers go into a nice, hot pan and do not overcook them; they tend to go tough if they stay in the pan too long.
2 tbsp olive oil (more if needed)
1 onion, halved and sliced into thin rings
200g chicken livers, trimmed
1 tsp fresh sage, chopped (or ¼ tsp dried)
75 ml Marsala wine (alternatively Madeira or port)
salt and pepper to taste
Heat the oil in a large, shallow frying pan over medium low heat. Add the onion and cook until golden brown and caramelised, about 15 minutes. Turn up the heat to medium and add a little more oil if the pan appears dry (it really shouldn't). When the pan is nice and hot (not smoking, you don't want to burn the onions!) add the chicken livers in a single layer. Fry, without disturbing them until browned, about 4 minutes. Turn and continue frying until the other side is brown and the livers are cooked, but still slightly pink in the centre. Do not overcook them, chicken livers are prone to going tough and leathery. Add the sage and Marsala wine and cook, stirring once or twice until most of the wine has evaporated and the sauce has thickened. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately accompanied by some crusty white bread (or, as I did tonight, freshly made garlic bread - with the emphasis on freshly made, the shop-bought stuff is OK for a barbecue, but not for this occasion).
Christine at 9:12 pm
