When I was growing up, every Jewish Holiday was celebrated at my Grandmother’s house. The day of the celebration she would have all the aunts over at her house to prepare for the meal. I can remember being served tongue, hunting for the afikomen on passover and enjoying my Aunty Tilly’s ice cream. Pesach meals are very traditional and during the reading of the Haggadah I would nibble on horseradish. We would start with boiled eggs in salt water and then move on to chopped liver, chopped herring, Danish herring and gefilte fish served with chrain. This would be followed by chicken soup with kneidlach before we got to the meat and vegetables. And then of course the desserts! Dave and I love chicken livers and I am always trying to find new ways to make them. When I got my copy of Jerusalem I paged through the book and came across the recipe for chopped liver. As soon as I saw the photos I was taken back to my childhood. Of being the oldest of the cousins at the table, of knowing my grandmother loved each one of us as if we were the only grandchild, of cuddles with Buddy, the border collie, and the little ones having ‘ships’ for beds. Next year April I will be having passover dinner at my house for the first time ever. My parents are going to spend the weekend with us, and this recipe for chopped liver will definitely feature as I am sure it will remind my dad of his mom.
Do you have a recipe that reminds you of your grandmother?
Chopped Liver
Ingredients
- 90 g duck fat, divided
- 2 large onions, peeled, cut in half and thinly sliced
- 500 g trimmed chicken livers, cut into chunks
- 5 hard boiled eggs, peeled, divided
- 60 mls dessert wine
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to season
- 15 mls chopped chives
Method
- Place 60g of the duck fat into a large frying pan
- Sauté the onions over a medium heat until soft and they have taken on some colour
- Remove and set aside in a bowl, leaving as much duck fat in the pan as possible
- Add the rest of the duck fat to the pan
- Add the livers and cook through completely, turning occasionally
- Add the liver to the onions, retaining the duck fat in the pan
- Leave to cool slightly
- Place the coarse grinder blade into your meat grinder
- Process the livers and onions and place into a bowl and set aside
- Process two of the eggs and place into a separate bowl
- Place the fine grinder blade into your meat grinder
- Process the liver and onion mix and place into the bowl with the coarsely ground egg
- Process two of the eggs and add to the liver mixture
- Add the duck fat, wine and seasoning to the liver mixture
- Mix gently and adjust the seasoning
- Transfer to a ceramic or glass dish
- Cover tightly with cling film and leave to cool
- Refrigerate for 2 hours until slightly firm
- Finely chop the remaining egg and sprinkle on top of the liver with the chives
Notes
Click on the links for conversions and notes.
What I blogged:
- one year ago – Lobster Pot Pie
- three years ago – Almond Cake
- four years ago – Roast Pork Fillet
I have always been fascinated by this recipe – I really must try it – thanks for inspiring Tandy.
I hope you find it worth the effort Rachel 🙂
My husband loves chopped live…he would certainly enjoy this recipe.
I hope you make it for him Karen 🙂
What a lovely post Tandy. I enjoyed reading about your Passover memories and childhood with your extended family. I guess the one thing that reminds me of my paternal grandmother is chocolate cake with thick buttercream icing and cherries. It was her “speciality” and she always had one waiting in the cake tin for guests.
I would love to have been one of her guests Tami!
As much as I enjoyed this post, I don’t think I could do chopped liver, haha!! My Grandmother always used to make cheesecake which I devoured. She was Polish and Russian and make lots of Russian foods with cabbage, grumpkies. And I loved those as a kid! Still need to learn to replicate hers.
I can never quite replicate the taste of my grandmothers crunchies, but I so love trying 🙂
Hi Tandy, love Jerusalem it is one of my favorite cookbooks, great presentation.
I am so loving the book as well Cheri 🙂
What a nice way to remember your grandmother! Whenever I think of hand made potato fries and spring rolls I think of one of my grandmothers. I think of the other with Chinese rice dumplings 😀
I loved reading your story about the potato fries Lorraine 🙂
Well my grandmother lives with me, but from my mother’s side, my grandmother used to make the most amazing coconut biscuits. That is what I would love to make as a reminder of her, since I see her so little!
I love how your beautiful liver reflects your time at your grandma’s, food tastes better when there is an association with good memories 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
I love that you have a sweet memory of your grandmother Uru 🙂
Never known this kind of liver dish instead of liver pate before, sounds delicious!!!
Thank you Dedy 🙂
I love chopped liver and when I was younger my best friend’s husband (now very sadly deceased) used to invited us for special Jewish celebratory meals. This brings back many happy memories. Thinking back to my grandmother – she was the queen of children’s birthday cakes fashioned into houses, boats, cars and princesses and lavishly decorated with delicious butter icing 🙂
Wow, the cakes sound amazing! I would invite you over for Passover if you were closer Tanya 🙂
I can’t believe this but I’ve never had chopped liver. You make it sound great and I should try it sometime!
This was the very first time I had made it myself Angela 🙂