Classic Chopped Liver

Recipe by Rachel M.

Hello there!

This is NOT Pat typing to you about foodie adventures, but please keep reading anyway. I was telling Pat about how his blog inspired me to document a recent cooking adventure I undertook and he offered to let me post about the experience.

I want to start with saying this recipe is definitely not for everyone. It is an acquired

taste (though I love it) and is INCREDIBLY unhealthy. When I told my mom what I was making I got a lecture about how unhealthy it was, and then when I went to the butcher I got a second lecture. Just a heads up.

This is traditional Jewish Chopped Liver. The recipe itself comes from the New York Times, but this is the basic recipe that many people use. By traditional I mean using parts of the chicken people tend not to eat, or at least don't eat purposefully (chicken fat). I grew up hearing stories about my family's chopped liver recipe from "the old country" and how amazing it was and that it was a huge treat.

There are not very many steps, and the only large piece of equipment I recommend is a food processor.

Start at your local butcher. Besides a pound of chicken livers, you need a quarter cup of raw chicken fat. Some butchers (like mine) will give you the fat for the price of a lecture on cholesterol. Chicken livers tend to be pretty cheap as well.

While hard boiling some eggs, thinly slicing an onion.

Then, over low heat in a non-stick pan, cook the

chicken fat with a handful of onion. (Picture pre-cooking) The fat will literally melt. Continue, stirring occasionally, until the cracklings and onions are golden brown.

Remove from heat and strain into a small container. I used cheese cloth over a mesh strainer. Be sure to press out all of the fat and save the cracklings for later. You have now made

Schmaltz!

Pour 3 Tablespoons of Schmaltz into a large skillet and saute the rest of the onions. The darker the onions the better. You don't want them to bite back.

Trim the livers of any connective tissue and add another tablespoon of schmaltz, cooking until no longer pink in the center. I cooked the liver and onions together without a problem.

Combine livers, onions, cracklings and 2 hard boiled eggs into a food processor and pulse. The mixture should be a uniform, medium texture. I added just a little bit pepper and no salt because schmaltz is naturally pretty salty.

Eat at room temperature or chilled. It is a great appetizer or snack with flat bread or crackers.

Not the prettiest snack, but it is delicious.

This recipe can also be made by replacing the Schmaltz with oil, sweating the onions and replacing whole eggs for 3 hard-cooked egg whites. But then it wouldn't be nearly as delicious.

And a Shout-Out to Kristin for making awesome flat bread! (Sorry I couldn't get the picture to rotate correctly.)

Classic Chopped Liver

Ingredients

1/4 cup raw chicken fat

2 cups finely sliced onions

1 pound chicken livers

2 large hard-boiled eggs, quartered

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Place the chicken fat and 1/8 of the onions in a small nonstick saucepan or skillet. Cook very slowly over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the far is completely liquified and the onions and resulting cracklings from the fat are golden brown.

2. Remove from heat and strain fat into a small crock, pressing as much fat as possible from the onions and cracklings. Reserve the browned onions and cracklings.

3. Place 3 tablespoons of the rendered fat in a large, heavy skillet and saute the remaining onions over medium-low year until golden brown. Remove the onions from the pan, draining as much fat as possible back into the pan.

4. Trim the livers of any connective tissue or membranes and pat dry with paper towels. Saute them over medium heat in the pan used for unions, adding another tablespoon of chicken fat. Cook the livers until they are lightly browned and no longer pink in the middle. Remove from heat.

5. Combine the livers, all the sauteed onions and hard boiled eggs, plus the cracklings in a food processor. Pulse briefly about 5 times until the mixture has a uniform, medium-course texture. Do not make it smooth.

6. If not serving within 3 hours, refrigerate.