CHOPPED CHICKEN LIVERS WITH A DIFFERENCE

 

Morteruelo--chopped chicken and livers make a good spread for toasts.

If you’re one of those people who like chopped chicken livers or liver pâté, I’ve got a different sort of recipe for you. Morteruelo is an old country dish from the La Mancha region of Spain. 

Traditionally morteruelo is made with game, such as rabbit, hare, and partridge, plus pork fat and pork liver. Stored in crocks, it was a ready-to-eat food that could be served cold like pâté or heated and spread on toast like rillettes. Add a couple of fried eggs and call it a meal.

I’ve lightened the original recipe, using chicken instead of hare, chicken livers instead of pork liver, olive oil instead of lard. What makes this pâté distinctive is the spicing—cinnamon, cloves, and caraway seeds. 

Serve morteruelo with toasts or bread sticks for dipping. It makes a great sandwich spread. Walnuts are a traditional garnish for the pâté. Pickles, onions, or thinly sliced apples are good accompaniments.

Walnuts are a traditional garnish for morteruelo.

Chicken and Liver Pâté

Morteruelo

Spices, chopped chicken, and mashed livers.

Makes approx. 4 ½ cups of pâté,

1 ¾ pounds chicken legs and thighs

1 onion

2 cloves

2 bay leaves

Sprig of thyme

Salt

1/3 cup olive oil

12 ounces chicken livers cut in pieces

1 clove garlic

1 ½ cups toasted bread crumbs

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon caraway seeds

½ teaspoon crumbled oregano

¼ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

Pinch of cloves

Chopped walnuts to garnish

Toasted baguette to serve

Place the chicken pieces in a soup pot and add 8 to 10 cups of water, the onion stuck with the cloves, bay leaves, thyme, and 2 teaspoons of salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until the chicken is very tender, 1 ½ hours. Skim out the chicken and the onion. Discard cloves, bay, and thyme. Reserve 3 cups of the broth. (Save the rest of the broth for another use.)

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove skin and bones and discard them. Coarsely chop the chicken meat and the cooked onion. Place them in a mixing bowl.

Heat the oil in a skillet on medium-high. Sauté the pieces of chicken livers with the garlic until livers lose their pink color. Don’t let them brown. Skim them out of the skillet and place in a food processor. Reserve the oil in the skillet.

Add the bread crumbs to the livers and garlic in the food processor with 1 cup of the reserved chicken broth. Process to make a smooth paste. Scrape it into the bowl with the chicken.

In a small bowl combine the cinnamon, caraway, oregano, pepper, cloves, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Sprinkle the spices over the liver in the bowl. Add 1 cup of reserved chicken broth and stir to combine the chicken, livers, and spices.

Heat the remaining oil in the skillet. Scrape the chicken mixture into the skillet. Cook 15 minutes, stirring frequently. As the pâté mixture begins to thicken, stir in more of the reserved broth as needed to make a mixture of spreading consistency. Spoon the pâté into earthenware bowls or crocks. Store it, covered and refrigerated, up to 1 week.

Serve the pâté hot or room temperature with walnuts scattered on top and accompanied with toasts.

More recipes with liver:

Lamb Liver with Onion Sauce.

Shepherd's Lamb Stew with Liver Gravy (Caldereta).

Sherried Chicken Livers.

Variations on pâté:

Chicken Liver and Partridge Pâté.

Ibérico Pâté of Chicken Livers.

Fish Pâté.

Monkfish Liver Pâté.

Fish Terrine.

Vegetarian Pâté with Seitan.

Vegetable Terrine (Pastel).

BEATING THE BIRDS TO THE LOQUATS

 

Loquats are not quite ripe.

The fruits on the loquat tree have turned from green to yellow. They’re not quite ripe, though. They need to be as orange as an apricot to be really sweet. Besides the color of their skins, I’ll know they’re ripe because the birds will beat me to them! 

Loquats (Eriobotry japonica) are called nísperos in Spanish. The egg-shaped fruit ripens in the spring, much earlier than apricots. The trees grow in subtropical climes along the south and east coastlines of Spain. Loquats grown in Alicante province have a protected quality denomination, Nísperos de Callosa d’en Sarrià.

Loquats are easy to peel—just cut off the stem end and strip back the skin. In the center are dark, knobby seeds (from one to five, but averaging three). Once ripe, the fruit is sweet, somewhat like a spicy pear in taste. The flesh is firm but juicy.

The loquats I picked early are juicy but more sour than sweet. They are just right in a sprightly spring salad. The combination of fruit with smoked ham (or smoked turkey) plus cheese will work just as well once the fruit is fully ripe. Use more or less lemon juice/honey in the vinaigrette to balance the flavors.

Sliced loquats, diced ham, and cheese make a sprightly spring salad.

Spring Salad with Loquats and Spinach

Ensalada de Primavera con Nísperos y Espinacas

Peel loquats, remove seeds. 

2-3 servings.

2-3 loquats (5 ounces)

4 tablespoons lemon juice

½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

½ -1 teaspoon honey

½ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon or basil

1 cup (3 ½ ounces) diced smoked ham

½ cup (2 ounces) diced mozzarella or fresh goat cheese

¼ cup slivered red bell pepper

1 ½ cups baby spinach leaves

Chopped pistachios

Chopped green onion

Peel the loquats. Cut them in half and remove the black seeds. Slice them into a bowl. Sprinkle them with 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice.

In a small bowl combine the mustard, honey, salt, and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. Whisk in the oil and the chopped herbs. 

Add the ham, cheese, and red pepper to the sliced loquats. Add half of the dressing and mix well. (The salad can be prepared up to this point and left to macerate 1 or 2 hours.)

When ready to serve the salad, place the spinach in another bowl and toss with remaining dressing. 

Divide the spinach between two or three salad plates. Spoon the loquat-ham-cheese onto the spinach. Scatter with pistachios and chopped onion.

More loquat lore: Loquat Mousse.

CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION

 What’s the occasion? I received a gorgeous gift this week—a 3 ½-pound chuletón, rib steak, of Retinto beef. No occasion, except to celebrate fine food.

Thick-cut, bone-in rib steak of Retinto beef. Cause for celebration.

Retinto cattle are an autochthonous breed native to southwestern Spain, ranging from Extremadura in the north to the beaches of Cádiz in the south. Literally the beach. The cows are sometimes seen meandering on the sands at the edge of the Roman ruins of Baelo Claudia at Bolonia (near Tarifa, Cádiz). 

My son Ben, who surfs along this coast, remembered that I had long been wanting to try this esteemed beef and brought me the steak. He also fired up the grill and cooked the meat to perfection—lightly charred on the outside, rare in the center.

No recipe needed! Sear the meat on both sides. Flip again and grill a few minutes longer. Douse the flare-ups. Serve the fine meat rare.

Carve the meat off the bone, then slice it thickly perpendicular to the bone.

Sprinkle with coarse salt. No sauce needed. Well, maybe a dab of this piquant Gilda sauce.

Although meat of this quality requires neither sauce nor sides, I produced a “Gilda” steak sauce (recipe below), mushroom sauté, and patatas fritas, olive oil fries, to accompany the meat. 

Chopped piparra peppers, olives, and anchovies.

For the sauce, I started with the ingredients of the Basque tapa, the Gilda, and turned them into a piquant sauce. The Gilda, invented in San Sebastian, consists of olives, anchovies and pickled green chilies (guindillas or piparras) speared on toothpicks. The tapa was supposedly invented in the early 1950s to immortalize Rita Hayworth in the film of the same name—Hayworth being “hot,” “salty,” “smooth.” 

Piparra green chilies from the Basque country are mildly-hot, not crazy-hot, similar to Italian peperoncini. The addition of Sherry to the sauce is a nod to the region where Retinto cattle are raised, near where Sherry is produced.

Good with steak, the sauce would also go nicely with a burger or grilled lamb chops. 

Gilda Sauce with Green Chilies

Salsa La Gilda 

¼ cup (packed) coarsely chopped parsley

2 cloves garlic

½ cup drained piparra peppers (3 ounces)

½ cup drained pitted Manzanilla olives (3 ounces)

1 ounce canned anchovies in olive oil (about 6)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 teaspoon dry Sherry

Pinch of oregano

Freshly ground black pepper

Place the parsley and peeled garlics in a mini-processor and chop finely. Remove stems from the peppers and cut them in half. Place in the processor with the olives and anchovies. Process until chopped. Add the oil, mayonnaise, Sherry, oregano, and pepper. Process until finely chopped. 

Scrape the sauce into a bowl to serve. If preparing in advance, refrigerate the sauce, covered. Bring to room temperature before serving.

For a cookbook (in Spanish): Recipes with Retinto Beef

All about steak and a recipe for chimichurri.

Steak Salad.

Steak Sandwich and Mushroom Ketchup.