Sunday, April 26, 2009

Elk liver and such

Portland, April 26—

OH WHAT A DELICIOUS dinner. Every time we're in Portland I look forward to the farmer's market, so different from ours in Healdsburg, and not only because of all the bakery stands. How can one city support so many bakeries? But that's not what interests me. What interests me is the meat man. If I'm lucky, he'll still have some elk liver.
Today we were lucky: we got the last one, about a pound and a half of elk liver. I Googled a recipe and came up with Mario Batali. I didn't really need it; I know how to cook liver alla veneziana. Still.
I sliced four good-sized onions very thin and sweated them for an hour in butter and oil, then removed them to a platter and sautéed the liver, cut into thin strips, just a few seconds on each side. Deglaze the pan with a little white wine and some lemon juice; then pour that over the liver and onions, sprinkle with a few drops of Balsamico, ed eccolo.
But that was by no means all. In the meantime Lindsey and Giovanna, inspired by a recipe in Deborah Madison's Local Flavors, whipped up a casserole, I guess you'd call it, of beans, kale, and cabbage, with leeks and parsley, and garnished it with a few sausages sliced up. Absolutely delicious. No salad, what with all those leaves sliced up; but a fine rhubarb fool for dessert.
White Luberon "La Ferme Julien"; red wine from Chile; Pinot noir from the Rheingau

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