Liver with mushroom sauce and straw chips

Ingredients
One piece of Calf’s liver
Three slices of Bacon
Mushrooms
Onion - 1/4 chopped
Small pickled onions
Cream
Marsala
Herbs
Beef stock
Flour
One large potato

Liver is usually over-cooked which not only toughens it but also can add a bitter taste and chalky texture. This turned out to be the best liver I had ever eaten with the added bonus of having cooked it myself.

Method

For the Liver:-
Lightly coat the liver with flour and fry in a very hot pan with a little oil and butter for 2 minutes each side then leave to rest for at least five minutes. The end result should be liver which is pink inside (and therefore tender and tasty) but resting it ensures that it does not bleed when cut as any juice is re-absorbed into the meat.

Straw Chips:-
Peel the potato and cut off the rounded ends and sides leaving an oblong block. Cut into narrow slices and then cut the slices into narrow strips. Try to keep the size of all the chips consistent.
Heat the chip pan and cook for a couple of minutes until golden brown.

For the sauce:-
Gently fry the onion in oil and butter. Add the mushrooms (I used dried porcini mushrooms which I soaked for 20 minutes beforehand – that gave me some extra juice for the sauce). Add the bacon. Pour in half a glass of Marsala or red wine and flame it to burn off the alcohol. Add herbs (I used some fresh parsley and some dried Mixed Herbs). Add half a cup of beefstock and half a cup of cream and gradually reduce until you have a thick and creamy mixture. If you have the ingredients ready to hand the whole process takes little more than five minutes so you can do this once the liver is cooked.

Serve, eat and enjoy!