The past few days have been a whirlwind of activity! I suppose holiday weekends usually are 🙂 Anyhow, we had a lovely time with friends and family and we ate some wonderful beef along the way! This past weekend we ate some T-bone steak, short ribs, and one pound of ground beef. My parents and siblings (who split a 1/4 cow from Grass Fed Foods with another family) ate some of their ground beef and some nice T-bone steaks. All grilled by Phred and he should have some pictures and tips up soon!
Last Thursday I decided to treat my mom to some good grass-fed beef liver. She likes chicken livers, but had never had beef liver before. I’d never made liver before, but I’d seen Phred make it on several previous occasions so I figured I could give it a go!
There were three good-sized pieces in the package I picked and I let them soak in lemon juice for about 5 hours. I’ve read that it helps to make the texture pleasant and to remove any impurities that might be present.
(will add a picture here this evening)
When I was ready to cook the livers, I dried them with a cloth and then dredged them in about a cup of flour with about a tablespoon of salt and about 5 turns of the pepper grinder.
(I have another picture to add!)
I had one Vidalia onion already cut up so I got it out of the fridge while the cast iron skillet was heating up with about two tablespoons of olive oil in it. I then started heating up a small frying pan with about a tablespoon of unsalted butter in it for the onions. I cooked the liver while the onions were caramelizing. I let the first pieces of liver cook on medium heat for about 3 minutes on each side and then put them in the toaster oven on warm while I cooked the last piece.
I had started some basic rice a couple of hours earlier – with added collard greens – and so I made a nice liver gravy to go with the rice. I started with some balsamic vinegar to help loosen the drippings after turning the heat down to low and giving the stove a few minutes to cool down. Once the vinegar stopped boiling, I added about a cup of milk and slowly began to sift in what was left of the dredging flour.
It turned out quite well! We had some leftover Milledgeville Cabbage as well as some stir-fried fresh green beans and baby squash to go with the liver, onions, gravy, and rice.
(Coming tonight: a picture of the finished product!)
This way of cooking liver did end up still tasting very liver-y which was fine for me because I like it. Phred prefers the way he makes it, which we’ll do next time so you can look forward to hearing about that 🙂 My mom ate all of her liver though and didn’t think it tasted half bad. Our children didn’t eat much of the vegetables for this meal, but they were more than happy to try and eat several bites of liver as well as most of their rice and gravy.
All in all, I think it was a success! Liver can be a tricky thing to cook since you don’t want to overcook it or it becomes tough. This liver was nice and tender and the flour crust on the outside was excellent.
Until next time, then!
~B.
How to Eat a Side of Beef 