A Selfish Meal

Peter was away, so I cooked a meal of foods that he’s not so into. First I put some sweet potatoes in the oven to roast.

Next, and really the main thing: liver. I’ve had a slab of pork liver in the freezer for a little while now. I suppose it’s actually an entire pork liver–more than a pound of the stuff.

I was inspired to get into it finally by cook eat FRET, and a recent post there about fegato alla veneziana. Please go read it, because it’s hilarious, but I don’t want to give away the ending, but it explains why I wanted to cook my own liver…sort of to set things right.

Anyway, I pulled it out and hacked off a piece. It will take me at least a year to eat the whole thing. I don’t think Peter will be out of town enough.

I’d recently happened to read in Joy of Cooking that it’s common to soak liver in milk, to soften the flavor. I figured this was worth a shot, since I’d also read that pork liver has a stronger flavor than calf’s liver. Plus, my liver was frozen, so the milk bath would speed up the defrosting.

Anyhoo. Soaked it till I got other kitchen business sorted, and also caramelized some onions. Got out some escarole, and some leftover vinaigrette. Got the sweet potatoes out of the oven–they’d busted open.

Sizzled up my butter, tossed my liver pieces in the pan. None of this Italiano business, though, with the tiny thin slices–I want pink in the middle of my liver.

Or I thought I did. Then I lost my nerve.

My dad always says, “Don’t overcook it!!!” And I always hear him saying that, and then I chicken out. I pulled out my liver after about 20 seconds on each side, and sliced it open. It looked good, but it oozed red. I panicked. I threw it back in. And promptly overcooked it.

Totally retarded! I should’ve reread my post about the pork liver at Joseph’s Table–turns out I ate liver in which “the inside was almost jelly-like it was so rare” and I fucking loved it. Maybe I was more remembering the totally raw pork liver I once ate at a Japanese restaurant–one of the few times I’ve actually had to hide unloved food under the garnish.

Anyway, then there was another small blunder. I thought I’d sprinkle some sumac over the liver, en homage to some fan-fucking-tastic liver I once ate at Ali’s Kabab Cafe.

But halfway through the sprinkling, I realized it wasn’t sumac between my fingers, but Sichuan peppercorn. Der. Turns out it wasn’t half bad. But the other half with sumac was better.