FLOWER POT KITCHEN: April 2017

14 Apr 2017

PAN SEARED LIVER WITH A PORT, CREAM AND MUSHROOM SAUCE

WoW this is such a beautiful rich decadent dish, if you think you don't like liver, I urge you to try this, pink moist pan seared liver in butter is elevated to a whole other level along with a beautiful butter seared mushrooms and shallot, finished of with a de-glazed port and cream sauce, this is spoon eating, getting more in your mouth than a fork!

Prep time: 5 minutes / Cooking time: 7 minutes / Resting time: 3 minutes

Ingredients

(serves 2)

500g trimmed high animal welfare lambs liver

50g butter

2 tbsp coconut or olive oil

10 Chestnut or Girolles mushrooms torn or roughly sliced

1 shallot finely sliced

2 tbsp rough chopped fresh parsley

1 tbsp fresh chopped marjoram (optional)

150ml good quality port

250ml double cream

sea salt

fresh ground white pepper

This is a really quick cook so not only prep all your ingredients first also be ready to serve with your plates and cutlery all set up before you start.

First place a non stick skillet on a medium high heat to warm up, this will be for pan searing the liver, meanwhile heat another pan medium hot, add half the butter and oil as soon as melted add the shallots and soften for a couple of minutes, then add the mushrooms after another couple of minutes turn your attention to the liver.

Add the remaining butter and oil to the pre heated skillet and place the liver in to sear, leave for around 1 minute before turning, once both sides have had a minute each take the skillet off the heat, turn the liver one more time and leave to rest, this allows the livers to relax and re-distribute the moisture back through the liver ensuring a beautiful moist mouthful.

Now to finish off the mushroom, port and cream sauce, crank up the heat to high, add the port and reduce by two thirds then add the cream and reduce for a minute to thicken, take off the heat immediately and leave to rest, season with the sea salt, pepper, parsley and marjoram if using. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed to your taste.

Serve the butter pan seared livers on your dinner plates then pour all the resting juices from the skillet in to the mushroom cream sauce stir through, pile the mushrooms and shallots high on top of the livers and drizzle or in my case pour over lashings of the port and cream sauce and enjoy.

LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.