liver liver liver....YUM

after very exhausting day trying to get groceries in order (the market at the foot of the street is the historic belleville market, famous for being cheap cheap), I treated myself to a little trip to the butcher near gambetta. I've been zipping by this guy everyday on the path to the metro (if my language is monkey in this blog it's because I'm using a keypad that misses a functional w key...made with paste fn...gad, need my mac back), and he's next to a place that sells cheeses and eggs, and a traiteur serving ready to boil italian goodies (like ravioli and...ravioli...). Needless to say, those three little shops make my stomach rebellious. So, today, pinching pennies on the food for the last seven days, I caved and bought myself a slice of fresh veal liver.

veal liver, like all other kinds of liver, is one of those culinary subjects, like broccoli, that install loving glinting eyes, filled with gentle memories rich in iron, or unabashed puking motions. and, yes, veal is one of those meats that the most conscientious among us gluttons has come to label as a meat produced under particularly malicious conditions. It's a young ox, restrained from ample movement, fed on fattening morsels, until its young life is cut before it matures as an adult. having already chugged "fast food nation" many many times, I am conscious of the sins of the current industrialized meat industry. This butcher looks to get its meat from particularly upright establishments...but still, I take responsibility for the fact that my animal was stuffed full of food, locked up in a box, and then slaughtered, with hardly a moment for bucolic poetry. The only hope I have is that the young ox managed to benefit from reasonable standards in grazing material, and that the slaughter was humane and sanitary (my hope).

even aside from moral issues, the notion of eating liver is not fun fun funny in the diet of most people I know. the dacnar himself refuses to touch the stuff. no wonder...most people either overcook liver (turning it into shoe rubber) or they forget to get rid of all the little tendons and blood vessels, that can make liver a nervy issue. bleah, remember eating liver once in roadside restaurant and had to leave most of it behind, sweltering in its dry graininess.

myself, having the privilege and honour of being raised in a house that ate varied and well, despite budgetary limitations, I have had nothing but good childhood memories of eating liver. My mother, house master of yin and yang cantonese cooking, taught me early the difference of heating and cooling foods, how to mix them according to the body, and how to eat certain things at various times of the year and month. Liver is rich, very heating, and should be eaten with neutral or cooling foods. She always made her liver the same way, fried: pork liver, chinese cooking wine, scallions, garlic, ginger, white pepper, salt and sugar, a tiny bit of soy sauce. Heat the oil up on a very hot casserole, toss in a bit of ginger and garlic, then liver, salt and white pepper, a bit of soy, toss, then dump in rest of ginger and scallions and cooking wine and some sugar, toss quickly till liver looks seared on outside only, and cover with lid for casserole and take off heat, keeping cover on to finish cooking time. this is very very fast cooking, so just keep your eyes open and make sure everything is chopped and ready to go. I love that dish soooo much, and it's so tender and sweet, the richness lifted so tenderly on the elegant vapours of the ginger. just a tiny bit of steamed rice...and I'm set.

today, I made my kwai lo (gringo) version of liver...and I made it with veal liver, rich and almost fudgy. just chop up some onions, sludge your slice of liver is a bit of milk, than follow with a flour mixture (pepper, salt, flour, some dried herbs), heat up butter in oil (50/50), toss liver in when hot, throw in onions before flipping on other side, flip when crisp, and when almost done, slip in a bit of alcohol (I had mirin on hand). served with oven fries, green salad and hp sauce...fast, easy heavenly and painless, like the good death of my young ox.