Ingredients
1 lb chicken livers
1/2 lb cap mushrooms
2 onions
1 1/2 oz unsalted or clarified butter
1/2 pt soured cream
3 tbsp fairly acid yoghurt
Directions
Thoroughly heat a large saute or frying pan. Add a scant 1/2 oz of
the butter and tilt so that the fat runs sizzling all over the pan
base. Add the mushrooms (whole if small or sliced thickly if large)
and saute over high heat for 5 minutes. Remove and keep hot.
Add the rest of the butter to the pan, then the onions which should be
thinly sliced and pushed into rings. Cook very gently indeed for 15-20
minutes until beautifully softened. Meanwhile stir the yoghurt into
the soured cream and season very generously with salt and pepper;
trim the chicken livers and pat them dry with kitchen paper.
Lift the onions out of the pan with a slotted spoon, so all the
buttery juices drip back into the pan, and keep them hot. Increase
the heat under the pan and saute the chicken livers for about 3
minutes so they become crusted with brown on the outside, but remain
deliciously pink and tender within.
Return the mushrooms and onions to the pan and immediately pour on the
seasoned soured cream. Let the sauce bubble up and cook for a few
minutes until it is very hot, slightly reduced and thickened. Stir
gently every now and again to encourage the sauce to cling creamily
to the meat and vegetables. Check seasoning and serve without delay.
Green beans and triangles of fried bread go well with this dish, and
I like to accompany it with plenty of crusty hot French bread to mop
up every luscious drop of sauce. More substantially, you could
substitute rice or thin ribbons of pasta for the bread.
Source: Philippa Davenport in "Country Living" (British), March 1988.
Servings: 4 servings
Chicken Liver Stroganoff Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Chicken; Meat; Poultry; Russian
The History of Recipes
Recipes as an idea can be tracked far back into history, at least as far into history as early Egypt, and possibly even further. Interesting though that maybe, generally, these old cookbooks were just very basic hieroglyphic or cunieform recipes for preparing meals.
In an interesting twist, the oldest recipe discovered so far, according to experts in ancient history is a collection of tablets in the Sumerian language which recount the baking of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made anyone who tried it feel wonderful and blissful. Continuing our culinary historical journey, we find two recipe books which were published in the 1300s - a book entitled `Forme of Cury`, and another named `Curye on Inglish`. Amusingly, these books are nothing to do with the indian curry that appears on menues today, but instead descriptions of the types of meals prepared by the chefs of the rich people of those days. Over the succeeding few centuries, the powerful and wealthy competed to offer the most extravagent meals, and because of this cooks and their recipes could command a high salary. Even so, it wasn`t until the 1800s that fine cooking and recipe publications rose to prominence. Mrs Beeton in the UK, and the equally well-known Fannie Merritt Farmer in the USA, spent years to collecting, verifying, and publishing recipes for their fellow cooks to enjoy. When we get to the 20th century, cook books were in great demand, mostly as a result of higher levels of literacy, more spare time and a general increase in wealth. The TV revolution gave us TV cookery programs and the demand for the accompanying recipe books. Which brings us neatly to the present day and the invention of the internet, permitting everybody to access massive numbers of recipes such as those found on our site. |
We hope you enjoy this Chicken Liver Stroganoff recipe.
