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.

Chicken & Dumplings

I saw this on America’s Test Kitchen (Chicken and Dumplings). I had the ingredients for Brown Poultry Stock in the freezer and thought it would be nice to make homemade stock to use in it instead of store-bought chicken stock.

 

Golden-browned chicken thighs.

 

Parsley, thyme, onions, celery, and carrots. (I forgot to photograph the homemade stock, sherry, milk and bay leaves and the mise en place for the dumplings – I was getting really hungry about now).

 

Sweating the mirepoix.

 

Simmering the chicken.

 

I added some finely chopped parsley to the dumpling dough. I don’t have a photo of the plating; it smelled so wonderful, my husband and I devoured it before I thought to take a picture.

Brown Poultry Stock

I adapted this from Jacques Pépin’s Fast Food My Way, Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio, and Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition. It’s a great way to use the bones from a few rotisserie chickens.

 

Celery, carrots, and some leek tops and corn cobs I had saved in the freezer.

 

A few rotisserie chicken carcasses, a duck carcass, some turkey and duck “bits” (neck, gizzards).

 

Part way through roasting at 425 degrees F for about an hour. You don’t even need to peel the onions.

 

Bouquet garni of celery tops, parsley, thyme and bay leaves; plus a few peppercorns thrown in the pot.

 

Extracting the flavors with a bare simmer.

 

I strained it through a chinoise, refrigerated it, skimmed off the fat and froze what was left after reserving 4 1/2 cups to make Chicken & Dumplings.  I was able to freeze two quart jars, four pint jars and two ice cube trays (nice for roughly 2 tablespoons worth to add to sauces) of stock for very little effort. 

Cozy Winter Lunch | Potato – Leek soup and Croques-Monsieur

I found this potato – leek soup on David Lebovitz’s blog. It was wonderful with the sandwich. This may be one of my favorite lunches.

 

Butter, leeks, home-made chicken stock (the recipe calls for water, but I figured a couple of cups of stock substituted for some of the water wouldn’t hurt), bay leaves and thyme, russet potatoes (had some sitting around), white pepper and chili powder.

 

Sweating the leeks in the butter.

 

Simmering until the potatoes are tender.

 

Buzzed with an immersion blender.

 

Gruyere (got it sliced into “sandwich slices” at the charcuterie counter), sourdough bread, honey-baked ham I had vacuum-sealed and frozen from Christmas.

 

Two layers of cheese and ham.

 

Microplaned a bit of cheese on top of the skim of butter.

 

Baked, then broiled a bit to brown the cheese. It’s wonderful that something so simple can be so good.

Scallop Gratin

I’ve been wanting to add more seafood to my diet (and use my cute, garage-sale dishes) so I had to try this when I saw Ina Garten make it on Barefoot Contessa:  Back to Basics.

Butter, garlic, shallots, lemon juice, parsley, prosciutto, Herbsaint (for the Pernod).

 

Topping before adding the olive oil and panko. My goodness, it smelled so good;  it was hard not to eat it by the spoonful.

 

On the show, Ina said you could use sea scallops and cut them in half.

 

I didn’t have any dry, white wine open; so I used this.

 

Scallops cut in half, nestled in the wine, ready for the topping.

 

All set for the oven.

It was very good. I’ll certainly be making this again.

Lemon Tart (with thanks to David Lebovitz)

I was intrigued by David Lebovitz’s blog post on an interesting method for making French Tart Dough that he used with his lemon curd to make a Lemon Tart. I just happened to have all the ingredients on hand – instant gratification.

 

Unfortunately, I was trying to work quickly and didn’t photograph the intermediate steps; check out the David Lebovitz’s French Tart Dough post for what the components should look like. You heat the butter, oil, water, sugar, and salt in a bowl in the oven until it just starts to brown around the edges, then dump in the flour – almost like pâte a choux. Mix it together and pat it into the pan. No rolling!

I didn’t have a tart pan, but I thought my springform would do in a pinch.

 

It’s a bit too light, I think. I’ll bake it a bit longer next time.

 

Unsalted butter, lemon juice, lemon zest and sugar (plus two large eggs and 2 yolks) for the lemon curd.

 

Ready to bake for 5 min.

My husband said it wouldn’t be right without a dusting of confectioner’s sugar. The crust is wonderfully flaky and lovely with the homemade lemon curd filling.

Spice Pepper Tapenade

Onion, anchovies, garlic, capers, purple basil, Parmigiano-Reggiano, sundried tomatoes, and roasted spice peppers. I finally realized that as the seeds in these spice peppers aren’t hot, I didn’t have to go insane removing them from the tray full of tiny peppers.

 

This tapenade is so tasty (and now that I know I don’t have to deseed them), I’ll grow these peppers again next season. (This was made in October.)