Inventing Words As We Go

We don't eat chicken livers very often - we know they are bad, bad, bad. Too much cholesterol. Too much fat. Too rich for aging digestions. But, oooh, the flavor.

I have to admit the prepping them is not the most fun - sorting through, slicing off the connecting bits, and they do rather slither when you're cutting them into bite-size pieces. Prepping a roughly equal amount of mushrooms is far more enjoyable - just a quick rinse and pat dry before cutting in halves or quarters.

The cooking part is easy and quick. Toast a slice of bread, the better to soak up the future juice. Heat a wide frying pan and brown the mushrooms in about a gallon of butter (just kidding! but don't stint on the butter). Remove the mushrooms to a plate when they are nicely brown and add to the same pan a minced clove of garlic and half a finely chopped onion. Toss them around in the butter-and-mushroom juice until they are soft, then turn up the heat and quickly sear the chicken livers until they are nicely caramelized on the outside but still lightly pink inside. Add back the mushrooms and toss together. If you want to add herbs or a sprinkling of wine, those make the dish even better, but it's lovely even without.

Plate your toast and top with the livers, then pour just a driz of the goozle from the pan over the bibbits and serve.

Inviting Controversy

If you don't like chicken livers, avert your eyes from the photo and come back tomorrow.

If you don't care for rosemary, see you domani!

That is, unless you want to surprise yourself with one of the most amazing combinations ever to cross your lips - chicken livers and rosemary.

I found the basic idea for this recipe - chicken livers skewered with rosemary and gently sauteéd in butter - at epicurious.com, where it's about the second item that pops up when one types in "chicken livers." Most of the rest are either mousse, paté or chopped liver recipes. This one seemed intriguing to me, so I decided to try it with the chicken livers I found at Baron's Meats in Alameda, but with some changes of my own to make it even better.

First, I went next door to beg some 6" sprigs of rosemary from my neighbors' thriving plant - rosemary grows practically wild around here and everyone is glad if you'll prune their bushes a bit. Following the recipe, I cleaned and divided the chicken livers into lobes, then soaked them in milk in the fridge for an hour. While they were soaking, I got busy stripping the leaves from the rosemary stems so I had about 5" of bare stem with a tuft of leaves left at the top. Set those aside.

Next - and this is the part I added - I sauteéd in a wide frying pan two garlic cloves gently in generous butter, then added four good-sized mushrooms, sliced in thick slices, and sauteéd them in the same pan. I set aside the mushrooms to cool, reserving the pan for later.

When the soaking time was up, I rinsed the livers, threaded them alternately with the mushrooms onto the skewers, about two mushroom slices and two livers per skewer depending on the length of the skewer. Be sure to leave an inch or so of the stem uncovered; if you pick them up to turn them by the tuft end, everything slides off - you need that extra inch to grab hold with tongs or fingers when flipping.

Reheating the same buttery, garlicky, mushroomy pan, l laid in the skewers carefully to sauté on medium high heat until the rosemary softened and the livers were just barely done, still pink in the center. Sadly, the rosemary didn't keep its bright green color but, heavens! what a taste sensation it made! From the first bite, My Beloved was nodding while chewing and meeting my eyes with that "Baby, I love the way you cook" look that melts my heart.

This was easily the best thing I have cooked in a month of Sundays. If you like chicken livers and rosemary, run don't walk to your nearest purveyor and get 'em while the getting is good. I'm already thinking I'll make these again next week. If you don't like chicken livers or rosemary, what are you doing still reading?

Queen of Salad

We were sadly predictable children in some ways, turning up our noses at liver, spinach, etc. Sometimes, I look back and wonder where our mother found the patience to raise four of us with a Navy husband who was often away for long periods. I'd probably have drowned us all shortly after birth. She, however, was made of queenly stuff. A few silly kids were not going to defeat her!

So, when we refused to eat chicken livers, she always said with a regal smile, "Fine! All the more for me!" She sautéed them in butter with herbs, deglazed the pan with just a splash of white wine, got out her finest china and silver, and served them to herself over buttered toast points, clearly relishing every bite.

In the fullness of time, I discovered that she was right all along - chicken livers are really tasty. Sautéed with butter and garlic, then whirled in a blender, they make a fine paté. Cooked gently with mushrooms and onions, they are delicious over toast. They also make a great salad addition, served piping hot over the greens.

The ticket with chicken livers is, as with all liver, not to overcook them. Melt some butter in a sauté pan, and let it get pretty hot (but not browned or smoking), then add the livers. (Before cooking, I trim off the connective tissue and those mysterious white things). Don't crowd them in the pan or they will steam rather than caramelize. Sauté lightly until they are just done, still pink in the interior - they will feel still slightly soft. Decorate your already-dressed (vinaigrette is best) salad with a few of these little brown beauties, perhaps a crouton or two, and sit down to a meal fit for my mother, the queen.