Most often, housewives prepare dishes from calf, beef, or chicken liver, forgetting that there is also pork liver, which is no less tasty and healthy.
Pork liver has a peculiar taste and may taste bitter if cooked incorrectly.
Cooking Secrets
To prepare the pate, you need to take only fresh pork liver. It has a red-brown color, a smooth surface without stains and blood clots. It should not have bile ducts, as well as blasted places.
First, the liver is well washed, remove the film (shell) and remove the bile ducts.
To get rid of bitterness, the liver is well soaked in cold water, changing the liquid periodically.
Raw pork liver is recommended to be blanched before cooking. To do this, it is cut into large chunks, dipped in salt water and cooked for 5 minutes. Then spread in a colander and rinsed with cold water. Such a liver after cooking becomes soft, juicy and not bitter.
There are several ways to treat pork liver so that it does not taste bitter.
- Pork liver is poured with acidified water (for 1, 5 l of water take 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar) and soak for 3-4 hours.
- The liver is immersed in milk and left for some time. For greater effect, the milk needs to be changed. If you add some sugar in it, then the liver will become softer and more tender.
- Some pork liver hostesses are pickled before using, using salt, onions, black and white pepper. But in this case it is better not to fry the liver, but to extinguish, because salt can make it drier.
After soaking, pork liver is prepared according to the chosen recipe. For example, make it pate. But we must remember that excessive heat treatment, especially frying, makes the liver tough and tasteless.
In addition to liver pate add carrots, onions, garlic, spices, butter.
Pork liver pate: a classic recipe
Ingredients:
- pork liver - 1 kg;
- lard - 100 g;
- butter - 100 g;
- onions - 3 pcs .;
- bay leaf - 1 pc .;
- ground black pepper - 0, 3 tsp;
- dill - a small bunch.
Preparation Method
- Cut onion into thin half rings.
- In a frying pan, melt 50 g of lard and fry the onion in it until golden brown.
- Take another pan. Cut the liver into medium cubes and fry on the remaining lard. As soon as the liver ceases to be bloody, add spices, bay leaf and cook for another 5-10 minutes.
- Connect it with onions and simmer until tender.
- Add chopped dill and butter. Stir and remove from heat. Cool it down.
- Mince a liver with onions twice through a meat grinder using the finest grate.
- Mix thoroughly.
Pork liver pate with mushrooms and wine
Ingredients:
- pork liver - 1 kg;
- lard - 100 g;
- onions - 3 pcs .;
- butter - 150-200 g;
- champignons - 200 g;
- pepper - to taste;
- white wine - 100 ml;
- salt - to taste.
Preparation Method
- Cut onion into thin half rings.
- Melt half lard on the pan and fry the onion on it until golden brown.
- Add the pork liver sliced in medium pieces, mix and cook for 15 minutes.
- In another frying pan, melt the remaining lard and fry on it until ready (about 20 minutes) mushrooms cut into small cubes.
- Put them in a frying pan with liver, add wine and spices. Simmer another 10-15 minutes.
- Remove from heat, add oil and mix.
- Grind with a meat grinder or blender until smooth.
- Pork liver pate with mushrooms, place in a glass container and put in the refrigerator.
Pork liver pate with smoked bacon
Ingredients:
- pork liver - 600 g;
- smoked bacon - 100 g;
- carrots - 1 pc .;
- bulb onion - 1 pc .;
- butter - 100 g;
- juice of one lemon;
- salt and pepper to taste;
- bay leaf - 1 pc.
Preparation Method
- Cut the prepared pork liver into medium pieces.
- Chop the bacon into small pieces, put it on a hot frying pan to drain the fat, and fry the liver on it.
- Finely chop the onion. Chop the carrot into straws. Put them in a frying pan with liver. Add spices, pour a little water, stir and simmer the whole 20 minutes over low heat.
- Remove from heat and cool slightly.
- Twist the liver with vegetables through a meat grinder or grind in a blender until smooth.
- Pound soft butter with lemon juice and combine with pate. Mix thoroughly.
- Store in a glass container in the refrigerator.
Pork liver pate with carrots
Ingredients:
- pork liver - 500 g;
- lard - 50 g;
- bulb onion - 2 pcs .;
- carrots - 2 pcs .;
- butter - 100 g;
- salt - to taste.
Preparation Method
- Boil peeled carrots until tender.
- Cut the lard into cubes and place in a hot frying pan.
- When fat is melted, add chopped onions. Fry slightly.
- Put the liver cut in medium pieces. Stir. Simmer for 15 minutes until tender. Cool it down.
- Separately chop liver and carrot in a blender. Then put them together, add soft butter and mix everything thoroughly.
- Cool in the fridge.
Boiled pork liver pate
Ingredients:
- pork liver - 500 g;
- bulb onion - 2 pcs .;
- carrots - 2 pcs .;
- butter - 100 g;
- ground salt and black pepper - to taste.
Preparation Method
- Soak the pork liver soaked in boiling water, bring to the boil again, removing the foam. Then drain the water, wash the liver and refill with hot water. Salt it. Appear foam remove skimmer. Boil until cooked for 15 minutes. Cool in broth. If you put a hot liver on a plate, it will darken, become dry and tough.
- Cut the onion and carrot into strips and save by taking a small amount of oil.
- Mince liver, onion and carrot twice through a meat grinder, mix with the remaining soft butter and whisk well with a spatula or in a blender.
- Put in a glass jar and put it in the fridge.
Mistress to note
- To keep the top of the pate not darkened, grease it with butter or melted butter.
- If you do not like the smell of lard, you can always replace it with melted butter or a mixture of vegetable and butter. The main thing is that vegetable oil is odorless.
- Any of these pastes can be served, laid out in a salad bowl, spread on bread, croutons, crackers. You can also put it on a flat dish, giving it any shape. Or wrap in food film, cool in the refrigerator, and then cut the frozen “loaf” in wide slices.
- Pate can be served in puff pastry baskets and in tartlets, decorated with greens or mayonnaise mesh, meat jelly.
