Thursday 10 May 2012

Liver and Bacon Hot Pot

As Greg Wallace of Masterchef UK puts it "you present it like a navvy, but you cook like an angel".  This recipe has taken me about 15 years to perfect.  However, the last thing on my mind when I was working on this wasn't what it was going to look like in front of the MasterChef judges Greg and John, but if it tasted good.

My rule of thumb when seeing if my stews and hotpots taste good is, if I go back to the pot after I've finished with a dry piece of bread and dunk it into the last bits of the gravy.

If you want to see the video on youtube of me cooking this on MasterChef UK Live event in 2011 the here is the link

Here's the recipe

Ingredients
  • 100 g White flour
  • 100 g Panchetta
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper
  • 1 tsp marmite
  • 2 Large shalotts
  • 200 g Carrots (Chopped)
  • 1 Kg potatoes for mash
  • 400 g lambs liver
  • 50 g parma ham
  • 1 Pint Beef Stock
  • 1 tim chopped tomatoes
  • 3 Olive Oil
  • Butter
  • tyme
  • parsley
  • 1 free range egg
  • 100 g bacon lardons (unsmoked)

Directions
  1. heat heavy based frying pan to high temperature, adding 1 tbs oil once at temp. This will prevent the lardons burning. Add the lardons and turn the heat down so the lardons are still sizzling, but not burning, this helps to release the fats.
  2. Once the lardons are nicely caramelised and much of the fat has been released, add the diced shallots and diced carrots. The carrots should be small enough to cook in the time but not too small to lose their bits, about a cm cube should be about right. Cook until translucent.
  3. Whilst the shallots and carrots are cooking, add the tinned tomatoes, stock, 1 tsp marmite and bay leaf to a saucepan. Heat this to a simmer, not a rolling boil.
  4. Once the shallots have caramelised add the contents of the frying pan, including the oil and fat from the lardons.
  5. add more oil to the pan, this will spit a bit as it starts to heat, but to cook the liver we need to ensure it is cooked at a nigh temp.
  6. If the liver is already sliced skip this step, place the liver on a board and slice the liver into 2 cm thick slices - my local butcher showed me the best way to do this.
  7. Select the best cuts and set aside, these will be used later. The smaller pieces and off cuts should not be wasted and can be used to help flavour the sauce. However, avoid using any small pieces that will be difficult to remove at a later stage.
  8. place plain flour, salt and pepper in a bowl read to coat the liver. Using the off cuts, coat these in the flour and add to the hot oil, shake of excess flour. cook for about 2 minutes on each side at a high temp.
  9. Add the cooked liver to the saucepan with the sauce, and take a little of the sauce to deglaze the frying pan. Ad this back into the saucepan. if you use too much oil to cook the Liver this can end up in the sauce, make sure there is only enough oil to cook.
  10. Allow this sauce to simmer for 20 minutes, watching it doesn't reduce too much. if it does, add boiling water, not cold.
  11. when the sauce is ready remove all the liver and set aside to settle, this will allow the oil and fat to come to the surface. Remove as much oils and fat as you can, it's now done its job and will only make the final sauce greasy
  12. While the sauce is settling, fry off the save liver pieces using the same flour method as before. Once this is cooked ( about 2-3 minutes each side), set aside and add the depressed sauce to the frying pan to reduce on high heat, if a little thin add some of the flour mix that coated the liver.
  13. When the sauce is ready, add back the saved liver for 30 seconds before serving.
  14. Server with a nice creamy mash and freshly made bread

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