Spicy Beef Liver
I found this recipe on the excellent Melissa Joulwan’s The Clothes Make the Girl – thank you Melissa! This is an amazing website for recipes but also a great blog too. Read more about Melissa’s journey here. She has released two books: Well Fed and Well Fed 2, both of which are on my Christmas and birthday lists.
The original recipe is for chicken liver but we only had beef. I had been either making beef liver pate or else frying the liver and serving with chopped parsley and lemon juice but this is now my favourite way to eat beef liver. It is gorgeous.
We make 2lb of beef liver at a time and then keep it in the fridge. As Melissa says, it is not as crispy the next day but still tastes delicious.
Ingredients
2 pounds chicken livers
2/3 cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon paprika (we used smoked)
1 teaspoon coarse garlic powder (we only had fine)
3/4 teaspoon cumin
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cloves
2-4 tablespoons coconut oil
Garnish with fresh lemon juice and chopped fresh herbs (we used parsley and mint)
Pat dry the liver with paper towels (strong ones!).
Cut the liver into slices. We should have done that the other way around – cut and then dry – but didn’t follow instructions (sorry Melissa!)
Might try cutting the liver slightly smaller next time.
Combine the coconut flour, spices, salt and pepper in a bowl.
Mix the liver with the spice mixture until thoroughly coated.
Heat the coconut oil in the pan and fry the livers in a single layer. Turn over when brown and crispy (a few minutes on each side). Drain on paper towels. Add more oil if necessary and fry the next batch.
We fried some onions up to go with it, but this probably makes the crispy livers a bit wet. We will try without next time.
Finely chop some flat leaf parsley and mint for garnish (and to add to the accompanying salad).
Stir the onions and fresh herbs into the liver.
We ate this with a salad and some harissa (made with added roasted red peppers). We had some macadamia pesto with it last time we cooked this – see below.
The first time we made this I think we used too much oil and the livers were not ‘dry-fried’ – see below. They were just as delicious but they weren’t crispy. The second time was much better.
