The Cottage Smallholder

Photo: Spices

“I’d like a bottle of white wine please. I’m going to try and tempt Danny with mussels tonight.”
“Does he have a problem with them?” Enquired John.
“When we first met we overdosed on them. But it has been eleven years and I spotted rope mussels on offer today. They looked so enticing.”
“Surely after eleven years he’ll want to give them a go.”

At the mention of mussels Danny’s face set quite still.
“But we planned to have a warm chicken liver salad.”

Within seconds he confirmed that he didn’t want to eat mussels ever, ever again.
“OK. I’ll cook the chicken liver salad for you and the mussels for me.”

But in the end, things were running late and I decided to cook the livers for both of us. I don’t know which angel guided my hand in the spice shelves but this sauce/dressing was superb. I hardly missed the mussels at all.

We added fresh nasturtium seeds to the salad for the first time and they were gorgeous.

Spiced chicken liver salad recipe (for two)

400g of fresh organic chicken livers (sliced into pieces the size of a teaspoon)
2 tbsp of olive oil
3 tbsp of white wine
3 tbsp of water
Half tsp of ground ginger
Quarter tsp of ground turmeric
Quarter tsp of dill (dried)
Quarter tsp of celery salt
Half tsp of garlic granules

1 Romaine lettuce heart (washed and torn)
4 spring onions (sliced)
5 cm of cucumber peeled and chopped
A small handful of fresh green nasturtium seeds

Method:

Prepare the salad and place in a large bowl.

Heat the olive oil gently in a large frying pan.

Add all the spices. Add the white wine and turn up the heat.

When the sauce is bubbling add the chicken livers and stir them constantly until they no longer bleed. Remove the livers with a slotted spoon to a warm plate.

Add the water to the pan and allow to boil, stirring constantly. 

Pop the chicken livers in the salad bowl and pour over the sauce.

We ate this with garlic bread and chilled Italian beer.