Tuesday 6 April 2010

Warm Chicken Liver Salad

I don't know why people buy "ready meals" from supermarkets.  They are expensive, unhealthily full of fat, sugar,  salt, preservatives and unmentionable e numbers and in my (limited) experience taste pretty awful.  There are alternatives to ready meals though, even if time and talent and cooking utensils are in short supply.  The above salad is a good example and took less time and effort than a so-called ready meal.
The free-range chicken livers I picked up from the farm shop would have served at least four as a starter and yet only cost £2.40 (from Sutton Hoo Chickens, a leading poultry farmer in Suffolk).  And if you wanted to serve them to guests at a party but felt £2.40 and five minutes prep was a bit mean you could always elevate and ennoble your salad by calling it salade tiède de foies de volailles.  The livers can be floured before frying if you want, and the pan deglazed with good quality vinegar (Sherry, say) instead of the red wine used here.

An appropriate vinous accompaniment could be a young, rustic red with a  bit of bite and drunk coolish like Corbières, Beaujolais, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, Chinon...

From a health perspective, free-range liver is good for you, lettuce is good for you, and garlic is good for you.  I was in control of the naughty stuff like salt and fat which is a lot healthier than leaving it to the manufacturers of ready meals.

5 comments:

  1. This is something I have quite often as I love love love chicken liver salad and, as you say, so quick and easy. In colder months, I'll have the livers on buttered toast; when it's warmer, the salad takes over.
    I also love to make home-made chicken liver and port pate (recipe on my blog) which is very easy, very tasty AND freezes amazingly well indeed.

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  2. Kavey, I shall be turning to your chicken liver pâté recipe very soon!

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  3. Quick, easy and delicious. And healthy too. I'll have to check out Kavey's pate too.

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  4. Tu as écrit une belle recette de "fast food" avec des cuisses de canard confits il ny a pas longtemps, une variante à ton appétissante recette aux foies est la salade aux gésiers confits qui est mortelle et super facile à faire, et un peu plus chère, si tu ne veux pas paraître radin.Bises, Claire

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  5. Merci Claire, j'adore les gésiers confits et me souviens de la première fois que je les avais mangés (dans une auberge à Sauternes); j'avais été un peu repoussé par leur aspect mais dès la première bouchée avais été converti. Malheureusement, on ne les voit quasiment jamais en Angleterre.

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