Chopped Liver

When I was in college, I was invited to a Jewish friend’s home for dinner.  His mother had made chopped liver for an appetizer.  It was a revelation – I had to tear myself away to save room for dinner.  I’ve been thinking of trying to recreate it for nearly 30 years and thanks to the Chicken & Dumplings I made recently, I actually had some schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) in the refrigerator!  I’m so glad I saved it.  I found what sounded like a good recipe from Ina Garten (Chopped Liver) on foodnetwork.

 

Schmaltz, onions, trimmed chicken livers.

 

Madeira and thyme.

 

Sautéing the livers in chicken fat!

 

The livers with the onions sautéed in chicken fat!

 

Added the Kosher salt, pepper, cayenne, and 4 hard-cooked organic free-range eggs (plus – not shown – more chicken fat!).  I wish I’d had the proper bowl and chopper to coarse chop the mixture as it’s hard not to over-do it in the food processor.

 

I wanted to give the chopped liver every chance to live up to my memory of it so I made some seeded rye bread (from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day) to serve it on.

 

Free-form loaf.

 

And Dutch Oven-method boule in the oven after 15 minutes with the lid on to steam.

 

Cooling.

 

I love the smell of caraway seeds.

 

It was every bit as good as I remembered. Yes, with all that cholesterol, it may be “artery putty”; but as a very rare treat I think it’s worth it.