Erica De Mane

Dead Chicken, by Chaim Soutine.

Recipe: Chicken Liver Salad with Escarole, Capers and Sage Croutons

I was thrilled recently when I taught my students  to cook up a few chicken liver recipes and got good vibes from the group. I  heard comments like, “Oh, I just love chicken livers.” They were sincere, too, I discovered. When I had a few extra livers left in the sauté pan after the demo, some of the students rushed up to our little stage to fork them up, right out of the pan. Don’t underestimate the passion of middle-class Upper Westsiders, as I first learned during my octopus cleaning and cooking class. They get into it. Teaching can be a humbling experience.

Speaking of chicken livers, at the top of my list of favorite winter salads you’d find ones that include crisp, high-heat-sautéed chicken livers, left pink in the middle and finished with a dash of grappa or brandy. That wasn’t something in the recipes I recently did for my class, but it was something I wanted very badly for dinner last night.

The key to any composed salad is to keep it clean. Refrain from using too many flavors, and make the dressing simple (nothing creamy, for instance). If you’re adding hot ingredients, such as sausage, sautéed shrimp, or chicken livers, chose greens that won’t wilt under the heat (arugula, for one, melts with a drip of warm oil). Frisée and escarole are good choices.

For this salad I pulled some flavors from the classic Tuscan chicken liver pâté, a dish I did make for my class (you can find my recipe here). I included capers, sage, a splash of grappa, and coarse black pepper, which is very important for both flavor and texture.

It’s been very cold this week. Many people think of eating baked ziti or polenta when the weather gets rugged. Try this salad instead. You’ll discover what a comfort it can be.

Chicken livers sautéed with capers and grappa, salad-ready.

Chicken Liver Salad with Escarole, Capers, and Sage Croutons

(Serves 2)

1 small head escarole, torn into pieces
1 small shallot, very thinly sliced
2 slices day-old Italian bread, the crust left on, cut into 1-inch cubes
Unsalted butter
Salt
2 fresh sage leaves, chopped
A few big thyme sprigs, the leaves stemmed
1 teaspoon Spanish sherry vinegar
The grated zest from 1 small lemon
Extra-virgin olive oil
½ pound organic chicken livers, cleaned, cut into lobes, and well dried
A generous pinch of sugar
Coarsely ground black pepper
A small palmful of Sicilian salt-packed capers, soaked and rinsed and dried
A tiny splash of grappa

Put the escarole in a salad bowl, and scatter on the shallot.

In a small sauté pan, heat a tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Add the bread cubes, season with salt, and sauté until golden, about 3 minutes. Add the sage, and pull the pan from the heat.

In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, thyme, lemon zest, and about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, seasoning with salt.

In a medium sauté pan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter over medium-high heat. When the oils are hot, add the chicken livers, sprinkling them with the pinch of sugar and spreading them out in the pan. Let them brown without moving them around, about a minute or so. Turn them over with tongs, season them with salt and coarse black pepper, and brown them on the other side, about a minute or so longer. Be a little careful, as they can spit at you. When the livers are well browned but still pink at the center, add the grappa and the capers, and let bubble for a few seconds (the pan will probably flame up, so stand back so you don’t melt off your eye lashes). Add the chicken livers and all the pan juices to the salad bowl. Pour on the dressing, add a few grinds of coarse black pepper, and toss gently. Add the croutons, and toss very quickly. Serve right away.

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Recipe: Shrimp and Roasted Cauliflower Bruschetta

I don’t like the idea of Nine, the new movie based on Fellini’s 8½ and resurrected from the semi-bomb of a Broadway musical of the same name that opened in 1982 and hung around for about a year (my parents didn’t even see it). I think the musical starred Raul Julia, an actor I really loved on film. The movie, with its super-duper cast, including my favorite living actress, Penélope Cruz, seems to be, unfortunately, a huge embarrassment, featuring Nicole Kidman’s new fattened lips that make her look a little like Dr. Joyce Brothers. I saw the cast assembled on Larry King last night, in an apparently desperate attempt to drum up enthusiasm for what looks like a big movie heading to be a big bomb. They showed lots of clips, of course. One that especially caught my attention featured the usually excellent actor Daniel Day Lewis, speaking in an Italian-by-way-of-Montenegro accent. So strange. That pretty French woman who played Edith Piaf so exquisitely a few years back and won an Oscar for it looked lost in the lineup, trying to answer Mr. King’s questions about whether or not she actually liked working with all those other really big actors (questions from a man who recently let slip that he thought Michael Moore had possibly written the song “The Times They Are a-Changin'”). I’m not sure Fellini needs another whipped up homage, especially since in his later years he created a few overexcited and extremely expensive self-celebrations all by himself, such as Satyricon and, a few years later, Casanova. You don’t have to ignore those movies; Casanova is actually pretty funny. But do yourself a favor and watch I Vitelloni again (and then maybe a week later again), and let its beauty fill your heart. You’ll see that love needs little tribute to keep it alive—maybe just a taste of this shrimp and cauliflower bruschetta. Federico, this bruschetta’s for you.

Shrimp and Roasted Cauliflower Bruschetta

(Serves 4 as a substantial first course)

1 medium cauliflower, cut into small flowerettes
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
Salt
A pinch of sugar
Black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 shallot, thinly sliced
1½ pounds large shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 large garlic clove, very thinly sliced
Salt
A generous pinch of Aleppo pepper
A splash of dry white wine
½ cup chicken broth
A handful of lightly toasted almond slivers
4 large slices crusty Italian bread, about ¾ inch thick
1 lemon, cut into wedges
A handful of fresh mint leaves

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the cauliflower on a sheet pan. Season it with cumin, salt, a pinch of sugar, and black pepper. Drizzle it well with olive oil, and give it a toss with your fingers. Roast until fragrant, tender, and lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Add the shallots in the final few minutes of roasting. Pull the pan from the oven, and give it a good toss.

In a large sauté pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over high heat. When the pan is really hot, add the shrimp and the garlic. Season with salt and Aleppo, and sauté quickly, tossing the shrimp once or twice until they’re pink and just cooked through, about 3 minutes. Add the white wine, and let it bubble a few seconds. Add the chicken broth, and let it bubble a second or so. Add the cauliflower, and toss again. Add a generous drizzle of fresh olive oil, and add the almonds. Check the seasoning.

Toast the bread slices on both sides, and lay them out on plates. Drizzle them lightly with olive oil, and season them with salt.  Divide the shrimp mixture up onto each toast, letting it spill over onto the plate (this is a knife-and-fork bruschetta). Garnish with the mint leaves and the lemon wedges. Serve hot, along with a slightly bitter green salad, maybe escarole or arugula, simply dressed.

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