US meets UK

I found a bag of chicken livers for sale at the Dupont Circle Farmer’s Market this weekend. I jumped on the purchase with serious enthusiasm-Nick? Not so much. I had planned on asking my regular chicken guy at the McPherson sq FM, but these magically appeared. Another alternative would be to purchase from Polyface, but they mix the livers and hearts and as a beginner, I’d prefer them separate.

I had recently seen a recipe for blackened chicken livers and since I want to try “variety meats” and I love Cajun flavors-it seemed like a great idea.

To further my offal education (oh gosh… these puns are endless) I tried to search for a cookbook on Amazon. There seems to be a serious lack of offal cookbooks, and in general education regarding cooking with offal.

There are the Nose to Tail, and Beyond Nose to Tail books. The reviews seem to highlight that the recipes include ingredients that are difficult to find and perhaps not accessible for the beginning offal cook.

There is also the River Cottage MEAT book – which I already have. In fact, I love the River Cottage entire series of cookbooks*. Nick and I have the River Family Cookbook, the River Cottage Bread Book and while I was in England (and still a vegetarian) I loved watching their tv show. I highly recommend the RC Meat book to anyone who wants to explore meat production and consumption from a holistic standpoint. I reference the book often, and enjoy reading it on a weekend afternoon to relax. I think Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is pretty amazing-can he and I be friends? Would that be creepy of me to ask? Probably.

I’ll be cooking the livers this week, and I’ll be sure to let you know of my efforts. I hope I succeed, because if so, I have high hopes for the momentum of the nose to tail movement. Offal meats are currently less expensive, while still high in nutrients. Eating offal makes both financial and (according to my own guide) philosophical sense.

Have you cooked with offal before? Do you have any recommendations for me?

*We have the British versions of these books, and while I can’t be positive I’d wager the American versions are a bit different.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 18th, 2010 at 11:42 pm and is filed under Food, edible philosophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.