Monday, 5 August 2024

Liver Stroganoff

 


...or, at least, that's what it was immediately christened in this house when it first made an appearance. Jill Norman, whose recipe it properly is, called it simply 'paprika liver'. The TD homed in on paprika, cream, and garlic, which, as far as he's concerned says 'Stroganoff', and the name has stuck.

This has become one of my three standard ways of treating calves liver: the other two being 'alla venezia', which is with caramelised onion, and what I call 'alla Modena' - although I can't now remember whether that's a real name that I found used elsewhere, or is just what I decided to call a recipe that I'd more or less made up - where the liver is breadcrumbed and fried in butter, and then served with a bigarade sauce (an idea that came from Nico Ladenis).

Ingredients: For two servings

Two pieces of calves liver; 1 large clove garlic; 20g butter;  1 tbs flour; 1 tsp paprika (piccante, not dolce); salt, to taste; half a cup of white wine; small handful of chopped parsley; half a cup of soured cream (ideally, or ordinary cream if sour is unavailable).

Method:

1. Cut the liver into thin slices. Put the flour, paprika and salt into a plastic bag, shake to mix, then add the liver to this and shake the bag so that the liver is thoroughly coated.

2. Melt the butter in a frying pan, and to this add the chopped garlic and the liver; cook for about thre minutes over medium-high heat, until the liver is cooked through. Remove the liver from the pan and set aside.

3. Add the wine and the parsley to the pan, increase the heat and reduce the liquid a little, then add the cream and continue to reduce until the sauce has visibly thickened. Return the liver to the pan and coat it in the sauce as the sauce continues to cook.

4. Divide the liver between serving plates, while the remaining sauce reduces and thickens to just a few spoonfuls, which should then be spooned over the plated liver.

In the picture, I served this with celery which had been braised in stock and white wine.