Tranche of calves liver with lime

 

Dish as in the book

After a couple of Marco-free week's normal service is resumed with two recipes this week from White Heat starting with a former lunchtime favourite from the Harveys days, calves liver with lime. Envisaging this combination on a menu its certainly not something I would be drawn to but having seen it prepared in the 'Marco' series on Youtube, minus the lime sauce, the dish looked like something worth having a go at.

I called in at the famous Mayfair butcher's 'Allen's of Mayfair' who are well known suppliers of such London restaurants as Le Gavroche and formerly Harveys. If you ever want to see a designer butchers shop then this is the one to visit, a huge big block in the centre with various men in white coats trimming and hacking meat to order, when selecting the calves liver I got to see the liver prepared from scratch, most unexpected.

Coming in at a dirt cheap £3 for two nice escalope's of calves liver plus a grade A foie gras for the second dish of the week coming in at £18 you certainly get value for money.

The first stage of the dish is the sauce, an arrangement of shallots, garlic and diced skinned and seedless tomato flesh roasted until soft, deglazed with lime juice and reduced between additions of port, vermouth, chicken and veal stocks. When scouring through the ingredients I couldn't help but wonder how acidic lime and aniseed of vermouth go with sweet, rich port and tomato but the end result is an incredibly sharp yet balanced sauce.



Sliced onions

Ever get that scenario where you see an ingredient you've been after for a long time available in the shop for months on end and at the precise moment you want to purchase said item the store go and discontinue it? Well unfortunately that's what became of my baby leeks leaving me no choice but to use a rough julienne of a full sized leek, such is life.

Fortunately that was the only set back of the whole dish. In the episode in which Marco prepares the calves liver he goes and chucks a brick of butter into a pan for the caramelised onions. After I peered in the fridge and noticed I was down to half a pack I took the option of about a quarter of a pack. The onions actually roast pretty quickly on a high heat, I've always been an advocate of the low and slow method when it comes to caramelised onions, the addition of a pinch of sugar and a splash of sherry vinegar really does help.



Sauce reducing, onions caramelising

After blanching the leeks and finishing in an emulsion of butter and water the last step was frying the liver itself. A quick tour through some seasoning and plain flour and straight into a hot pan, 30 seconds each side and voila, the liver was cooked.



Caramelised onions

 

The dish bears a lot of resemblance to the salmon and basil dish, simple ingredients prepared without fuss. Taste wise the sauce blew me away, the flavour and complexity of richness of alcohol and butter with the sharpness of the tomato and lime was incredible, the liver brings a rich slightly bitter taste which brings out the flavour of the onions. A really clever way to refine a classic dish like liver and onions.




The final plate