Learning to Like Beef Liver!

There are many foods that I had an aversion to when I was younger that I have completely changed my mind on and now absolutely love them - Brussels Sprouts, spinach, mustard greens, are a few that come to mind. There are some food items that I avoided as a kid, like mayonnaise, that I can actually eat in moderation now.

There are a few foods that I am desperately trying to like, but haven't been able to coax my taste buds into enjoying them yet.  Raw tomatoes is one of those things.  I fully realize that admitting to not liking to eat a homegrown tomato, freshly picked and sliced with salt and pepper is akin to a blasphemous or heretical statement.  I can devour raw tomatoes in Pico de Gallo and cooked tomatoes in any form, but sliced, raw tomatoes have not beholden themselves to my taste buds-Yet! But I'll keep trying.

Organ meats are a mixed bag with me.  Chicken livers are wonderful.  It is such a treat to have fresh chicken livers for supper, fried in butter in a cast iron skillet.  I love them.  Beef liver?  Well, that is another matter altogether - until last week.  As noted in THIS POST we butchered one of our grass-fed steers and have all the organ meats - one of those being beef liver.  We figured we'd give it a try and Tricia discovered THIS RECIPE: Beef Liver with Fig, Mushroom and Caramelized Onion Compote.  It came from a blog called the Healthy Foodie.  We'll walk through the steps and review at the end of the post. Here are the ingredients:

INGREDIENTS

• 375g beef liver, sliced
• The juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tsp arrowroot flour (we used regular AP flour)
• ½ tsp Himalayan salt (we used regular salt)
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 4 slices smoked bacon, cut crosswise into ½" pieces (we omitted the bacon... GASP!)
• 2 large onions, sliced
• 200g mushrooms, sliced
• 4 dried figs, chopped
• ¼ tsp Himalayan salt (we used regular salt)
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 sprigs fresh sage, chopped (no sage available)
• 2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar (we used apple cider vinegar)
• 1/4 cup water

Now, we altered the recipe to include only things we had on hand, making the substitutions shown above in parenthesis and also adding butter instead of bacon grease.  First, marinate the liver in the juice of a lemon for a day in the fridge, then while your skillet is heating up with butter, wash off the liver under running water and pat the liver dry.

Washing the beef liver.  Does not look appetizing - At All!

Mix the flour, salt and pepper in a bowl and dredge the liver in the flour//spice mixture until thoroughly coated.

Dredging with flour

When the skillet is really hot, add the liver to the sizzling butter and sear it for around a minute.  Note that the color of the beef liver is an unappealing drab grey.

Searing side 1

Then flip to the other side to allow a good sear on the reverse side.  This takes about a minute as well. You'll note that they turn a nice golden brown.

Searing side 2

Remove the liver to a covered plate to keep it warm.  Now go to work on making your caramelized onion & fig compote.  Over medium high heat, add more butter and add two large onions sliced to the skillet.  Allow them to cook down for a a bit.

Putting the onions on

After allowing the onions to caramelize for about 10 minutes, we added to the onions the mushrooms and then our own dried figs that we showed you that we made in THIS POST.  

Adding mushrooms and dried figs to the mix

Finally we added the apple cider vinegar and water, stir and cook for a minute or so until the liquid is evaporated.

Apple Cider Vinegar joins the party

Then we place the liver back into the skillet atop the onion, fig, and mushroom compote, allowing the liver to heat back up after its siesta in the plate.

The livers are re-introduced

We'll turn the heat off while the flavors mesh together and get cozy.  I spooned some of the onions, mushrooms, and figs on top of the beef liver so they could get to know each other better.

Ready to serve!

The review: It would be a misleading statement if I were to tell you that I didn't have some hesitation in eating it.  It was Beef Liver, after all, a dish that has a negative perception in my mind, for reasons unknown to me.  However, the color was right, the smell was good and the caramelized onions, mushrooms and figs beckoned me to give it a shot.

I placed a piece of the liver on my plate and heaped the onion, mushroom, and fig compote on top, thinking that the 'candy' would mask the underlying liver.  First bite: The liver was surprisingly tender.  I was expecting a texture similar to a shoe sole, but it was anything but.  I learned that it is very important not to overcook beef liver as it gets tough.  The onion, mushroom, and fig compote who played a supporting role, risked over-shadowing the lead actor with its delicious and sweet (thanks to the figs) taste.  A fork-full of liver and the compote was a match made in heaven, though, complimenting one another.  This was a hit at our house.  Two thumbs up from Tricia and I with an abstaining vote from Benjamin (Ha!)  Russ loved it too and actually brought all the leftovers back to college with him along with a package of liver for him to cook while at college.

Not only is beef liver good, but it is good for you!  Here's what the Weston A. Price Foundation says about it:

So what makes liver so wonderful? Quite simply, it contains more nutrients, gram for gram, than any other food. In summary, liver provides:

• An excellent source of high-quality protein
• Nature’s most concentrated source of vitamin A
• All the B vitamins in abundance, particularly vitamin B12
• One of our best sources of folic acid
• A highly usable form of iron
• Trace elements such as copper, zinc and chromium; liver is our best source of copper
• An unidentified anti-fatigue factor
• CoQ10, a nutrient that is especially important for cardio-vascular function
• A good source of purines, nitrogen-containing compounds that serve as precursors for DNA and RNA.

We approve of this dish and will make it often.  I can honestly say I now like beef liver!  Perhaps next summer I'll be able to say the same for homegrown tomatoes???