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 by-product is beef liver. It surpasses all types of meat in the content of minerals and the most valuable vitamins, including the 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. Meat by-products can be a delicacy if the liver, tongue, heart or other giblets are in the hands of a professional, or even an amateur who knows how to cook with the soul.
Recipes for liver dishes in pots or in the oven are much less common than recipes for meat dishes. Perhaps this is due to some of the difficulties of its preparation. We will try to understand some technological issues so that you can easily cook any dish from the liver in the oven.
Liver in a pot in the oven - the basic technological principles
When buying, pay attention to the appearance of the offal. Fresh beef liver is covered with a gray-brown film, trimmed from large vessels and bile ducts; The texture is uniform 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 preparation is delayed. But it is better to clean it before freezing.
How to do it? The general procedure for pre-preparation of beef liver is always the same:
• The cooled by-product is washed in cold water.
• A small cut is made to remove the film. This operation is the most difficult stage. Note that the film is removed from the half-frozen liver without much effort. You can use another tip: Scald the cooled liver with boiling water, and then rinse under running water to remove clots. Keep in mind that the remnants of the film can spoil the dish - after heat treatment, such a liver becomes incredibly tough, it is impossible to bite it off and even cut it with a table knife. • After removing the film, large pieces are cut and the bile ducts are removed. Further, the liver is cut, depending on the technology of preparation: for stewing, in pieces of 25-30 g (in bars or cubes); for cooking meat - more large; for escalope, schnitzel, chop - large portion plates (125-250 g), from whole parts that do not contain ducts.
• Beef liver is initially allowed or fried for no more than 3-4 minutes. Lowering is used for the preparation of dietary dishes. For roasting the liver is rolled in flour with salt.
The raw liver has a very loose structure, but after heat treatment its protein collapses intensively, compacts the product, displacing the juice. The duration of frying or stewing is the second important point requiring attention. Liver should be extinguished no more than 10-12 minutes, as further heat treatment adversely affects the quality of the dish.
To give a juicy and delicate taste before frying or quenching the liver is kept in milk. With the same purpose, when sauteing, sour cream is added to the liver sauce. Lactic acid slows down the coagulation of protein, which allows you to increase the time of quenching. Lactic and ascorbic acid is also present in many vegetables and fruits that are part of the stewed liver dishes in a pot in the oven. Components with a dense texture, which require a longer heat treatment, are preliminary, before being combined with the liver and braised in the oven, fried, boiled, passaged or allowed.
Chicken liver requires less time for preliminary preparation, since there is no need to remove the film from it. Otherwise, all the technological moments of its preparation coincide with the preparation of the extinguishing of dishes from the liver of other animals and birds.
Regarding the combination of the liver with other products in dishes, you can highlight potatoes, carrots, onions, mushrooms, cereals, other meats, fruits and dried fruits. It is important to remember that in cooking there is always room for experimentation.
Recipe 1. Beef liver in pots with sour cream potatoes - classic home cooking
Products:
Onion 180g
Liver 0.75 kg (net)
Boiled potatoes 0.65 kg
Garlic 45g
Sour cream of average fat content of 250 ml
Dill 90 g
Water (or vegetable broth)
Spicy spices, salt
Flour 90 g
Refined oil 150 g
Working order:
Pre-prepared beef liver cut into small pieces of 25-30 g. Add salt to the flour and roll the pieces of the liver. Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry for 2-3 minutes, stirring the pieces continuously. Put them in pots. Pass the chopped onion in a skillet. Add sour cream combined with broth (300-350 ml). Bring sauce to a boil, season with minced garlic, herbs and spices. Blend the prepared sauce with a blender until smooth.
Peeled and boiled potatoes cut into long and thin sticks. Divide into 6 servings and put in the pot with liver. Pour the sauce, covering the contents of the pots 1-1.5 cm above the level. Add broth to the sauce if needed. Try the taste.
Put the pots on a pan, cover with lids and simmer in the oven at an average temperature of 10 minutes from the moment of boiling. Turn off the oven and leave the dish inside for 20 minutes. For filing additionally decorate with greens.
Recipe 2. Chicken liver in pots - stew with peas and cauliflower
Products for 6 servings:
Green peas 240 g
Fresh lemon juice 75 ml
Salt
Carrot red 360 g
Sugar 50 g
Sunflower oil, purified 50 ml
Cauliflower 420 g
Spices - to taste
Chicken Liver (net weight) 550 g
Flour 150 g
Sweet onions 180g
Cream 450 ml
Fresh greens
Chicken or vegetable broth 350 ml
Butter, melted 180 g
Cooking technology:
Boil water, add salt, lemon juice. Let loose in this water cabbage inflorescences. Remove with a slotted spoon and put it on a plate. When water is drained, fry in a pan, sprinkle with flour and add melted butter. In the same pan, fry the prepared liver with chopped onion. Put green peas in the water in which the cabbage is boiled. Separately, in another pan, fry the carrot cubes until soft, stirring with a spatula. Before you put the carrots in the pots, sprinkle them with sugar.
Heat the cream, add the chicken broth, add the spices.
In clay pots, place the liver, fried in melted butter and rolled in flour, but 2 pieces per serving. From above lay out the prepared vegetables, equally, in random order. Pour cooked cream sauce, pre-interrupting it with a blender. Simmer for 10 minutes in the oven, and sprinkle the contents of the pots with the chopped greens before serving.
Recipe 3. Liver in a pot in the oven with pineapple
Composition of products:
Beef liver 1,5 kg
Pineapple (slices) 450 g
Soy sauce 25 g
Starch, potato 50 g
Sugar 90 g
Balsamic vinegar 30 ml
Sesame oil 120 ml
White onion 180g
Cinnamon Raisin 90 g
0.5 kg long rice
Kitchen salt
Cooking:
Cut the liver into portions, dividing it into 6 portions 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 onion.
Prepared rice boil until half cooked in salted water. Put the rice on the bottom of the pots. Connect the rice with the washed raisins and pineapple slices. Spread the mixture over the liver slices. Simmer at an average temperature of 7-10 minutes.
Recipe 4. Liver in pots with apples, in Berlin
Products:
Sweet and sour apples 900 g
Liver, beef 12 pcs. 120 g
Ghee 120 g
Leek240g
Flour 100 g
Lemon juice 70 ml
Cognac 70 ml
Cream 250 ml
Broth 180 ml
Ground pepper
Fig, dried 150 g
Thyme (leaves, for decoration)
Working order:
Prepared beef liver slices, rolled in flour, fry on both sides.
Peel the apples and onions cut into plates, sprinkle with lemon juice and fry too. Cut the figs into slices. Prepared components put in pots, 2 pieces of the liver per serving. Put slices of apples, figs and onions on them. Fry the remaining flour to cream color, pour in cream, broth, brandy. Smash the mixture with a blender and pour the ingredients into the pots. Simmer in the oven until boiling, then turn off immediately. Remove the pots and serve after 20 minutes, sprinkled with thyme leaves.
Recipe 5. Beef liver in pots with chanterelles on sour cream
Product List:
Onions, white 300 g
Chanterelles marinated 450 g
Butter, melted 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
White beans boiled 420 g
Mushroom seasoning 25 g
Garlic 50g
Preparation:
Sort through the chanterelles, wash and cook for 20 minutes. Remove the water, rinse and repeat the cooking process, but with the addition of salt and spices. Throw the finished mushrooms through a colander. Also wash the canned beans.
Spread the liver, chopped in small bars, with flour and fry in hot oil. Transfer to pots, dividing into portions. Also add chanterelles and beans.
Pass the chopped onion in the same pan. Sour cream with broth, add tomato sauce, spices to taste, chopped garlic and pour the mixture into the pan. Bring to a boil. Smash the resulting sauce until smooth consistency blender and pour in equal portions in pots of liver, mushrooms and beans. Sprinkle the contents with chopped dill and cook in the oven.
Recipe 6. Potato chicken livers with garlic-peanut sauce and buckwheat
Composition of products:
1.5 liter broth
Onion 250g
Broth, chicken 1, 5 l
Chicken liver 1.3 kg
Carrots, yellow 300 g
Vegetable fat 120 ml
Cream 200 ml
Walnut (kernels) 90 g
Garlic 30g
Greens and spices - to taste
Flour 120 g (for passaging)
Buckwheat groats 500 g
Cooking:
Crushed onions and grated carrots passe in vegetable oil. Add cream to vegetables mixed with broth and spices. Bring sauce to a boil. Prepare the prepared liver slightly and place in ceramic pots. Sort through and wash. Steam in a dry heated frying pan until the moisture evaporates. Spread the cereal in equal parts in pots, to the liver. Chop the garlic with walnut kernels and herbs. Add the mixture to the pots and pour the liver with cereal with the prepared sauce.
Simmer in the oven for 10 minutes, turn off the heat and reach the pots in half an hour. Serve the dish, decorated with greens.
Liver in Pot - Tricks and Tips & Tricks
To prevent butter from burning in the pan when frying products, use it in melted form or add vegetable oil to it.
Fry the liver on high heat. If after roasting it has to be stewed, then when roasting it is enough to hold it in a hot frying pan, for 2-3 minutes, until the protein coagulates, only on the surface of the pieces. When frying, in order to improve the taste, put lemon zest in the pan.
