Chef's Cookery Corner: Tapa: Chicken Liver

Okay so I got out of class this morning with nothing to do the rest of the day. So I grabbed my boy Will and we went to Central Market.

Now for those of you who don't know, Central Market is my Disney World. All kinds of fresh produce, meats, wine, bread, cheese, and yummys. It took all I had not to go hog wild and buy every thing I saw... Including fresh Artichoke (on sale)

(Morel mushrooms $70/lb!!!!)

(Oyster mushrooms. Delicious!)

So Will and I explored the store till I realized I had my new cookbook in my bag.

I flipped through it until I found a quick easy recipe that we could do for lunch.

Now for a little background. Tapa in Spanish is "lid" which comes from the tradition of using a small plate of something to nibble on to cover a glass of wine to keep out creepy crawlies (and some of the flying variety). Tapas are now basically Spanish bar food. Go to a wine bar and order and glass of wine and, in Andalusia where the tradition of tapas started, you'll most likely get a small plate of olives with garlic and herbs, frittered shrimp, or pan fried chicken livers with sherry along with whatever wine you ordered.

So chicken livers with sherry sounded good and I had most of the ingredients at home already. I just had to get a few things. Parsley being one of them. Now there are two types available at the supermarkets here. Regular and Italian. Crinkly and flat. Now if you're thinking "O well the crinkly must be Italian because it's fancy." I'm sorry, you'd be wrong. Regular parsley is crinkled and wavy; Italian parsley is flat.

Next I needed chicken livers. Now this part was easy and crazy all at the same time so I don't have pics of the container but just know they come in smallish one pound tubs in the fresh meat section. Lastly at the store I needed a bottle of Sherry. I got a fino dry. You can go with dry or semi-dry. I think dry works best. I got a loaf of buttermilk sourdough bread from the bakery.

Also I needed olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper, but I had them at home. I know right, this is simple. So it took us three hours to get back to my house since we were using the bus system. By time we were home we were really hungry.

So how to make this yummy concoction of liver, garlic, and wine? I'll show you.

First off, warm a few swirls of olive oil in a nice sized pan. Throw one clove of garlic (or two if you like it) sliced thin into the pan and let that brown slightly. Rough chop the livers to about uniform 1/2 inch cubes-ish. Take out any green veins as those will leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Slide the livers into the pan.

(I had some onion in too just for kicks)

Stir that around until the outside of the liver is a pale brown/tan color and the juices are a oily gravy. Season with a pinch of salt and a few turns of a pepper grinder. When the edges start to turn darker, add in one glass of Sherry and a handful of chopped parsley (flat Italian remember) then stir until the alcohol smell is cooked out of the fumes.