I ate out at a restaurant recently where I was served a most delicious
meal of chicken livers. It was entree size (for US readers please
read here starter size). I would say there were about 6-8 full
livers chopped into bite-sized pieces.

I asked for the recipe and was given the following. These are
ingredients only for the sauce I think and there is certainly not
enough in the quantity (for one-size serving) because the serving I
received was quite smothered in the delicious sauce.

A good experimental (or creative) cook out there will be able to sort
this out. The taste was right but the texture of the sauce and the
amount was wrong.

For one person:

20ml green ginger wine
15ml port wine
half tsp cracked pepper
half tsp reduced chicken stock powder
half tsp salt
1 tsp finely diced fried bacon
half tsp sugar
6-8 whole chicken livers.

I was not given a method. So I improvised and it worked up to a
point only.

I combined all the ingredients above except the livers together and
then heated them in a small saucepan.

I cleaned and chopped the livers into bite-size pieces, and dried them
and then coated them in flour.

I heated abiyt 2 Tbps oil in a skillet.

I fried off the livers in the hot oil very quickly until only the
centres were pink (I have done this before so I know what to do!)

I then added the sauce. There was (a) not enough and (b) it was not
thick.

If anyone out there is familiar with a recipe like this, I would
really like to know how to do it properly.

My first reaction was to double the amount of sauce and thicken it a
bit with cornflour.

Love to know what to do.

Cheers



Daisy

Daisy wrote:
<snip>

Perhaps try frying the bacon in a little butter first, then add a teaspoon
of flour, fry, then add a bit more stock than mentioned in the recipe, and
then the other ingredients?

US Readers please read as starter size?...

Anyway, the recipe sounds great. Was this served over noodles or rice?

I almost think I'd cut the livers after cooking. Did they disintegrate?
Karen

On 10 Jan 2005 13:04:55 -0800, "Karen" > wrote:

>US Readers please read as starter size?...

In the US I find the entree sizes are what we call mains and the
starter sizes what we call entrees. I also find US starter serving
sizes generally almost the size we call mains, in other words quite
big. We use European terminology.

>Anyway, the recipe sounds great. Was this served over noodles or rice?

No, but there was a small amount of crispy hokkien noodles at the
bottom of the dish, and it was served with baby salad leaves.
>
>I almost think I'd cut the livers after cooking. Did they disintegrate?

No.

>Karen

Daisy

Daisy wrote:

> >US Readers please read as starter size?...
>
> In the US I find the entree sizes are what we call mains and the
> starter sizes what we call entrees. I also find US starter serving
> sizes generally almost the size we call mains, in other words quite
> big. We use European terminology.

I am confused about the terminology. When I was in France, an entree was, I
think, what you call a starter and what we call an entree was the main
plate. So I get a little confused when restaurants use French terminology
for something different than the French do.

Never the less, the size of various dinner courses varies with the
restaurant and the dish. I am reluctant to order anything with smoked
salmon here because the size of the serving is so pitifully tiny that is is
just a teaser. But if I order Calamari, I usually get enough that I don't
need a main course. Salads can be a small bowl of greens with some
interesting accompanying veggies and garnish, or they can be huge bowls, the
size I would make for 2-3 people.

During several trips to Europe I was often surprised as the size of the
appetizer servings. At one meal in Verdun my wife ordered a shrimp and
avocado salad, and we expected half an avocado with a scoop of shrimp
salad. What arrived was a huge pile of shrimp salad, which was mostly
shrimp rather than mostly filler, a dozen whole shrimp on top and an entire
avocado sliced up and arranged around the pile of salad. I had ordered a
Tourte Lorrain, expecting a slice or tart sized mini quiche. It turned out
to be small pie, about 6 inches across and almost 2 inches deep, a huge wad
of sausage meat underneath the the custard.

By the time we got through our appetizers we wondered how we were going to
manage the steaks that had been ordered for the main course. We thought
that perhaps they would be the tiny servings of beef that some people report
from their journeys. This was not he case at all. They were 12 oz strip
steaks, accompanied by a huge serving of potatoes and fresh green beans.
Not bad for a 99FF ($22 Cdn) three course fixed price meal.

It wasn't much different in most of the other places we visited. I had a
Sunday night special at our hotel in Denmark. The fish course was enough
for a meal. In Breda , Holland, my appetizer was a pate platter, and once
again, it was enough for a meal. There were 2 huge slabs of pate. Luckily,
the salmon filet that followed was not so generous or else I never would
have managed to eat it all. In Paris, the appetizers were slightly smaller,
but the main dishes were quite ample. There was only one restaurant in Paris
where the servings were small, and in that place the food was not very good
at all. It was extremely disappointing, and also the most expensive.

>

Daisy wrote:

> >US Readers please read as starter size?...
>
> In the US I find the entree sizes are what we call mains and the
> starter sizes what we call entrees. I also find US starter serving
> sizes generally almost the size we call mains, in other words quite
> big. We use European terminology.

I am confused about the terminology. When I was in France, an entree was, I
think, what you call a starter and what we call an entree was the main
plate. So I get a little confused when restaurants use French terminology
for something different than the French do.

Never the less, the size of various dinner courses varies with the
restaurant and the dish. I am reluctant to order anything with smoked
salmon here because the size of the serving is so pitifully tiny that is is
just a teaser. But if I order Calamari, I usually get enough that I don't
need a main course. Salads can be a small bowl of greens with some
interesting accompanying veggies and garnish, or they can be huge bowls, the
size I would make for 2-3 people.

During several trips to Europe I was often surprised as the size of the
appetizer servings. At one meal in Verdun my wife ordered a shrimp and
avocado salad, and we expected half an avocado with a scoop of shrimp
salad. What arrived was a huge pile of shrimp salad, which was mostly
shrimp rather than mostly filler, a dozen whole shrimp on top and an entire
avocado sliced up and arranged around the pile of salad. I had ordered a
Tourte Lorrain, expecting a slice or tart sized mini quiche. It turned out
to be small pie, about 6 inches across and almost 2 inches deep, a huge wad
of sausage meat underneath the the custard.

By the time we got through our appetizers we wondered how we were going to
manage the steaks that had been ordered for the main course. We thought
that perhaps they would be the tiny servings of beef that some people report
from their journeys. This was not he case at all. They were 12 oz strip
steaks, accompanied by a huge serving of potatoes and fresh green beans.
Not bad for a 99FF ($22 Cdn) three course fixed price meal.

It wasn't much different in most of the other places we visited. I had a
Sunday night special at our hotel in Denmark. The fish course was enough
for a meal. In Breda , Holland, my appetizer was a pate platter, and once
again, it was enough for a meal. There were 2 huge slabs of pate. Luckily,
the salmon filet that followed was not so generous or else I never would
have managed to eat it all. In Paris, the appetizers were slightly smaller,
but the main dishes were quite ample. There was only one restaurant in Paris
where the servings were small, and in that place the food was not very good
at all. It was extremely disappointing, and also the most expensive.

>

ah... I was thinking that it was sort of a slam on portion sizes for
Americans. Thanks for clearing that up.

Karen

Karen wrote:
> US Readers please read as starter size?...
>
I thank you for the translation. It's interesting how we have different
terms for the same things

Jill

On 10 Jan 2005 13:04:55 -0800, "Karen" > wrote:

>US Readers please read as starter size?...

In the US I find the entree sizes are what we call mains and the
starter sizes what we call entrees. I also find US starter serving
sizes generally almost the size we call mains, in other words quite
big. We use European terminology.

>Anyway, the recipe sounds great. Was this served over noodles or rice?

No, but there was a small amount of crispy hokkien noodles at the
bottom of the dish, and it was served with baby salad leaves.
>
>I almost think I'd cut the livers after cooking. Did they disintegrate?

No.

>Karen

Daisy

Karen wrote:
> US Readers please read as starter size?...
>
I thank you for the translation. It's interesting how we have different
terms for the same things

Jill

Daisy > typed:
..
>
> For one person:
>
> 20ml green ginger wine
> 15ml port wine
> half tsp cracked pepper
> half tsp reduced chicken stock powder

Is that something you can buy there? Never seen it here. Could you use
ordinary stock powder, I wonder?

> half tsp salt
> 1 tsp finely diced fried bacon
> half tsp sugar
> 6-8 whole chicken livers.
>
> I was not given a method. So I improvised and it worked up to a
> point only.

It sounds very nice to me. I would think that reducing it would thicken it,
but of course you would need even more that way :-)

--
Cheers,

Judy -- some quotes perceptive, some pedestrian, none mine :-)

Experience is that marvellous thing that enables you recognise a
mistake when you make it again. - (Franklin P. Jones)

Daisy wrote:
<snip>

Perhaps try frying the bacon in a little butter first, then add a teaspoon
of flour, fry, then add a bit more stock than mentioned in the recipe, and
then the other ingredients?

US Readers please read as starter size?...

Anyway, the recipe sounds great. Was this served over noodles or rice?

I almost think I'd cut the livers after cooking. Did they disintegrate?
Karen