Prices for offal are much lower than for meat of any kind, although they are not inferior to meat in taste. This is surprising, especially in terms of their useful content. The most valuable offal is beef liver. It surpasses all types of meat in the content of minerals and the most valuable vitamins, including offal of animals and poultry, and the low price of a source of animal protein is only an additional incentive to include it more often in the diet. Dishes from offal can become a delicacy if the liver, tongue, heart or other offal are in the hands of a professional, or even an amateur who knows how to cook with the soul.
Recipes of dishes from the liver in pots or in the oven catch the eye much less often than recipes for meat dishes. Perhaps this is due to some difficulties in its preparation. We will try to understand some technological aspects, so that you can easily cook any dish from the liver in the oven.
Oven-potted liver - basic technological principles
When buying, pay attention to the appearance of the offal. Fresh beef liver is covered with a gray-brown film, stripped of large vessels and bile ducts; The texture is homogeneous and dense. Preliminary preparation of offal requires patience and accuracy. The liver can be stored chilled for no more than a day, after which it should be frozen if cooking is delayed. But before freezing it is better to clean it all the same.
How to do it? The general procedure for preliminary preparation of beef liver is always the same:
• Chilled offal is washed in cold water.
• A small incision is made to remove the film. This operation is the most difficult stage. Note that the film is removed from a semi-frozen liver without much effort. You can use another tip: scald the chilled liver with boiling water, and then rinse under running water to remove clotted clots. Keep in mind that the remnants of the film can ruin the dish - after cooking, such a liver becomes incredibly stiff, it can not be bitten off and even cut with a table knife.
• After removing the film, large pieces are cut and the bile ducts removed. Further, the liver is cut depending on the cooking technology: for stewing - in pieces of 25-30 g (in bars or cubes); for the preparation of minced meat - larger; for escalope, schnitzel, chop - large portioned plates (125-250 g), from whole parts that do not contain ducts.
• Beef liver is initially smoked or fried for no more than 3-4 minutes. Squash is used for cooking diet foods. To fry the liver, roll in flour with the addition of salt.
The raw liver has a very loose structure, but after heat treatment, its protein intensively coagulates, condenses the product, displacing the juice. Duration of frying or stewing is the second important point that needs attention. The liver should be stewed no more than 10-12 minutes, since further heat treatment adversely affects the quality of the dish.
To give a juicy and delicate taste before frying or stewing, the liver is kept in milk. For the same purpose, when stewing, sour cream is added to the liver sauce. Lactic acid slows down protein clotting, which allows you to increase the quenching time. Lactic and ascorbic acid is also present in many vegetables and fruits, which are part of the stewed liver dishes in a pot in the oven. Components with a dense texture, requiring a longer heat treatment, are fried, boiled, sautéed or cooked before connecting to the liver and stewing in the oven.
Chicken liver requires less time for preliminary preparation, since there is no need to remove the film from it. Otherwise, all the technological aspects of its preparation coincide with the preparation of stewing dishes from the liver of other animals and birds.
Regarding the combination of liver with other products in dishes, potatoes, carrots, onions, mushrooms, cereals, other types of meat, fruits and dried fruits can be highlighted first. It is important to remember that in cooking there is always the opportunity for experimentation.
Recipe 1. Beef liver in pots with potatoes on sour cream - a classic of home cooking
Products:
Onion 180 g
Liver 0.75 kg (net)
Boiled potato 0.65 kg
Garlic 45 g
Sour cream medium fat 250 ml
Dill 90 g
Water (or vegetable broth)
Spicy spices, salt
Flour 90 g
Refined Oil 150 g
Operating procedure:
Pre-prepared beef liver, cut into small bars of 25-30 g. Add salt to flour and roll pieces of liver. Heat the oil in a pan and fry for 2-3 minutes, stirring the slices continuously. Put them in pots. Passer the chopped onions in a saucepan. Add sour cream, combined with broth (300-350 ml). Bring the sauce to a boil, season with chopped garlic, herbs and spices. Finish the sauce with a blender until smooth.
Peeled and boiled potatoes cut into long and thin bars. Divide into 6 servings and put in pots with liver. Pour the sauce, covering the contents of the pots 1-1.5 cm above the level. Add broth to the sauce if necessary. Taste it.
Put the pots on a pallet, cover and simmer in the oven at medium temperature, 10 minutes from the moment of boiling. Turn off the oven and leave the dish inside for 20 minutes. For serving, garnish with greens.
Recipe 2. Chicken liver in pots - stew with peas and cauliflower
Foods in 6 servings:
Green peas 240 g
Fresh lemon juice 75 ml
Salt
Carrot, red 360 g
Sugar 50 g
Sunflower oil, refined 50 ml
Cauliflower 420 g
Spices to taste
Chicken liver (net weight) 550 g
Flour 150 g
Sweet onion 180 g
Cream 450 ml
Fresh greens
Chicken or vegetable broth 350 ml
Butter, ghee 180 g
Cooking Technology:
Boil water, add salt, lemon juice. Let the assorted cabbage inflorescences in this water. Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate. When the water drains, fry in a pan, sprinkle with flour and add melted butter. In the same pan, fry the prepared liver with chopped onions.
In the water in which the cabbage was cooked, let the green peas. Separately, in another pan, fry the carrot cubes until soft, stirring with a spatula. Before you put the carrots in pots, sprinkle it with sugar.
Preheat the cream, add chicken stock into them, add spices.
In clay pots, put the liver fried in ghee and scalded in flour, but 2 pieces per serving. Spread prepared vegetables on top, evenly, in random order. Pour in the cooked creamy sauce, after interrupting it with a blender. Simmer for 10 minutes in the oven, and before serving, sprinkle the contents of the pots with chopped herbs.
Recipe 3. Liver in a pot in the oven with pineapple
Product Composition:
Beef liver 1.5 kg
Pineapple (slices) 450 g
Soy sauce 25 g
Potato starch 50 g
Sugar 90 g
Balsamic vinegar 30 ml
Sesame oil 120 ml
White onion 180 g
Cinnamon raisins 90 g
Long rice 0.5 kg
Kitchen salt
Cooking:
Cut the liver in portions, dividing into 6 servings of 250 g each. Sprinkle the pieces with a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar and sugar. Roll portions in starch and fry over high heat with chopped onions.
Boil the prepared rice until half cooked in salted water. Put the liver on the bottom of the pots. Combine the rice with washed raisins and slices of pineapple. Spread the mixture on top of the liver slices. Simmer at medium temperature for 7-10 minutes.
Recipe 4. Liver in pots with apples, in Berlin
Products:
Sweet and sour apples 900 g
Beef liver 12 pcs. 120 g each
Ghee 120 g
Leek 240 g
Flour 100 g
Lemon Juice 70 ml
Cognac 70 ml
Cream 250 ml
Broth 180 ml
Ground pepper
Fig, dried 150 g
Thyme (leaflets, for decoration)
Operating procedure:
Prepared slices of beef liver, roll in flour, fry on both sides.
Cut peeled apples and onions into slices, sprinkle with lemon juice and fry too. Slice the figs into slices. Put the prepared components in pots, 2 pieces of liver per serving. Place slices of apples, figs and onions on them.
Fry the remaining flour to a cream color, pour cream, broth, cognac. Interrupt the mixture with a blender and pour the ingredients in the pots into it. Simmer in the oven until it boils, then immediately turn it off. Remove the pots and serve after 20 minutes, sprinkled with thyme leaves.
Recipe 5. Beef liver in pots with chanterelles on sour cream
Grocery list:
Onions, white 300 g
Chanterelles marinated 450 g
Ghee 90 g
Meat and vegetable broth 450 ml
Liver 750 g (net)
Sour cream 350 ml
Dill, fresh 125 g
Tomato paste 50 g
Flour 60 g
Boiled Beans, White 420 g
Mushroom seasoning 25 g
Garlic 50 g
Order of preparation:
Go through the chanterelles, wash and cook for 20 minutes. Remove water, rinse and repeat the cooking process, but with the addition of salt and spices. Throw the prepared mushrooms through a colander. Rinse canned beans as well.
Sprinkle the chopped liver into flour and fry in hot oil. Arrange in pots, dividing into portions. Also add chanterelles and beans.
Passer the chopped onions in the same pan. Dilute sour cream with broth, add tomato sauce, spices to taste, chopped garlic and pour the mixture into a pan. Bring to a boil. Pour the resulting sauce to a homogeneous consistency with a blender and pour in equal portions into pots with liver, mushrooms and beans. Sprinkle their contents with chopped dill and bring to readiness in the oven.
Recipe 6. Chicken liver in pots with garlic-nut sauce and buckwheat
Product Composition:
Bouillon 1.5 L
Onion 250 g
Broth, chicken 1, 5 l
Chicken liver 1.3 kg
Carrot, yellow 300 g
Vegetable Fat 120 ml
Cream 200 ml
Walnut (kernels) 90 g
Garlic 30 g
Greens and spices to taste
Flour 120 g (for passivation)
Buckwheat groats 500 g
Cooking:
Pass chopped onions and grated carrots in vegetable oil. Add cream to vegetables, combined with broth and spices. Bring the sauce to a boil. Slightly lower the prepared liver and place in ceramic pots.
Sort and wash. Steam in a dry preheated pan until the moisture evaporates. Arrange the cereal in equal parts in pots, to the liver. Grind garlic with walnut kernels and herbs. Add the mixture to the pots and fill the liver with cereal cooked sauce.
Simmer in the oven for 10 minutes, turn off the heat and remove the pots in half an hour. Serve the dish, decorating with greens.
Potted liver - tricks and tips
To prevent butter from sticking in the pan when frying food, use it in melted form or add vegetable oil to it.
Fry the liver over high heat. If after frying it has to be stewed, then when frying it is enough to hold it in a hot pan, 2-3 minutes, until the protein is curdled only on the surface of the pieces. When frying, to improve the taste, put the zest of lemon in the pan.
