Chicken Livers with Grapes and Carmelized Onions is an easy start to cooking chicken livers, up there with pâté and tacos. It’s real, simple food at it’s finest – sweet, savory and lovely.
This recipe is adapted from a version in Gourmet Magazine, September 2006 – the 65th Anniversary Edition. It’s the only issue I have and I have no recollection how it ended up in my small stack of preferred cookbooks and magazines. The magazine stopped publishing in 2009 and I really didn’t know much about it until well after that. Yet this single edition has been so well-loved that I wish I could have grown up with Gourmet or had time to know it a bit better.
A conversation with Ruth Reichl
I heard the former editor of Gourmet, Ruth Reichl, speak in 2014. Even then, I didn’t know her. My neighbor had told me in passing that Alice Waters would be at the Art Institute. It turns out that Waters was having ‘a conversation with’ Reichl – both of them promoting new books.
Reichl spoke about FDR’s Victory Gardens and what Americans were eating in 1942. These ubiquitous home and public gardens were meant to reduce pressure on the food supply during World War II. She spoke about how we were all eating the same foods across the socioeconomic spectrum.
With a garden, eating is more mindful and frugal. The fruit of your labors is tangible, nourishing your family. Out of this same culture, the practice of foraging was encouraged.
Finally, families were still eating the whole animal. Most of these animals were raised on pasture, as this was before the industrialization of animals began escalating in earnest in the 60s and 70s. And before cholesterol and saturated fats were falsely accused or the publication of the first food pyramid in 1992.
Real food
When my kids ask me if they can eat something out of the house, I often ask them if it’s a plant or animal (or mineral). If they can answer correctly, they can probably eat the food. Those squeeze tubes of applesauce have baffled them for years. However, in 1942, much of what they ate was still ‘food’ in the ‘mineral-plant-or-animal?’ sense of the word – mostly because many of these substitutes had not yet been invented.
The book Reichl was promoting that night, Delicious!, weaves that time and place into a modern story. I recommend it.
Though, for me, the highlight of that evening was catching Alice Waters in a quiet moment on our way out. In those few minutes I was able to express my appreciation toward her and my well-worn copy of The Art of Simple Food. She touched my belly and wished me well. Graham was born less than 2 weeks later.
Real and simple
Meanwhile, this recipe is ‘real’ and ‘simple’ at it’s finest – few ingredients that come together well. The sweetness from the carmelized onions and grapes is balanced with the savory liver and acidic wine vinegar.
This recipe calls for red grapes; use the darkest ones you can find. Jo Robinson, in Eating on the Wild Side, offers suggestions for maximizing the nutrient-density of everyday produce. For grapes she recommends choosing red, purple or black grapes over green varieties – with Muscadine and Concord grapes as best choices. These varieties are preferred due to the anthocyanins that give the grapes their dark color. These antioxident-laden pigments are also associated with anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, and anti-cancer benefits.
However, for any grapes, choose fresh bunches that have bright green stems and are flexible. Avoid bunches that are sticky, moist or have loose fruit. If you buy conventional grapes, rinse them thoroughly to reduce your exposure to pesticides. Here, I chose the darkest red organic grapes I could find at my local grocer.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 3 T butter
- 2 onions, sliced into half-moons
- salt and pepper
- 1 t finely chopped rosemary
- 1 lb chicken livers
- 1 to 1 1/2 c red seedless grapes
- 1/3 c red wine vinegar
Instructions
- Carmelize onions: heat one tablespoons butter in pan over medium heat, add onions along with 1/2 t salt, a generous pinch of pepper and 1/2 of the chopped rosemary. Stir occasionally and reduce heat if necessary to avoid browning. Cook for about a half hour until the onions are softened and golden brown. Transfer to a plate.
- Meanwhile, dry the livers and cut off any connective tubes or tissues over the edge. Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and a bit of pepper.
- After you've removed the onions to a plate, increase heat to medium-high and add another tablespoon butter to pan. Saute livers, turning once, until they are browned outside and pink inside, about 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Remove from pan and add these to the plate with the onions.
- Add grapes and the remaining half of the chopped rosemary to the now-empty pan. Saute at medium-high, shaking or stirring for a minute. Add vinegar to scrape up brown bits. Finally, add the last tablespoon of butter, as well as a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Let them all get to know each other and then pour pan sauce with grapes over the liver and onions and serve.
I’m editing next week’s menu and shopping list right now, and subbing this in! Also, I don’t doubt you about that magazine. I haven’t seen it, but I do have a copy of the book Goumet published for its 65th anniversary, and it’s one of my all-time favorites. Like maybe top five. They pick one recipe for each of the sixty five years, and each one is fabulous! I got so excited when I read you have this magazine!
I can’t imagine choosing only one recipe per year! It’s in our amazon cart now – I’m looking forward!
So good! I was craving chicken livers and onions and this was the best version I’ve ever tasted. I used white wine to deglaze the pot instead of red wine vinegar. Fabulous!