Venison Liver with Onions, Bacon, and Sage

After a year of some concerted effort to eat more of it, I have come to enjoy and savor the flavor of liver. Eating liver makes me feel happy and nourished, like I am being good to my body. I love when I cook it just right and it tastes perfectly tender. This recipe is my current fave - using whatever kind of liver (venison, chicken, calf, lamb) - especially now when there is abundant fresh sage. I did try this with beef liver too - and it was still pretty good, but you know, liver-y. The venison livers I have are often from younger deer, so they resemble calf more than full grown beef. Beef livers are a bit full flavored. Whichever liver, I have finally learned to cook it well, which is to say, I have learned not to over-cook it. As Jennifer McLagan writes in Odd Bits, "Seared crisp on the outside and meltingly tender on the inside, enriched with butter and spread on toast or quickly grilled with a warm and creamy center - well prepared liver is sublime." Yes. Sublime. 

This recipe (originally for calf's liver) is from Odd Bits, a cookbook I am hoping to explore more this winter. It is a cookbook full of recipes to cook the "odd" parts of an animal: tongue, sweetbreads, brain and tripe - among MANY others. I am currently happy in the liver section, whose introduction asserts that every cuisine has a liver specialty. I have looked up some of the ones she mentions, plus a few others to return to for liver inspiration later:  

• Italian fegato all veneziana
• Jewish chopped chicken liver 
• Eastern European liver dumplings and liver in cream sauce
• Chinese stir-fried liver 
• German braunschweiger, a liver sausage
• English (and Irish) liver and bacon
• Finland's maksalaatikko, a dessert of liver and rice pudding flavored with syrup and raisins
• Persian del va jegar, chicken heart and liver (and a liver and lung too)
• Paraguay's higado 
• Portuguese peri-peri
• Ethiopian dulet, a blend of beef, tripe, and liver 

Dulet Photo

The last one is the one I am most intrigued by, at least at this moment. I have not found a recipe, but the link above likens the dulet to kitfo, which I may have mentioned once or 1000 times that I LOVE, and in fact the author of the link prefers the dulet. I did find that Dilla's on the west bank in Minneapolis serves Dulet (neither Fasika or Blue Nile do), so maybe it is worth venturing there. In the meanwhile, I will enjoy this liver and onions take on things (modified slightly from Odd Bits):

Venison Liver with Onions, Bacon, and Sage
Serves 2
2 thick slices bacon, double smoked if possible
1/4 c duck fat (I used butter)
3 onions, halved and thinly sliced
Coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper
16 sage leaves, finely shredded
9 oz liver (or more!)
coconut flour
1+ T sherry vinegar

1. Cut the bacon into 1/4 inch strips. Heat half the fat in a frying pan over medium heat and add the bacon and onions. Season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring often, until the onions are softened and colored, then stir in the sage and keep warm in a 200 degree oven. *For best results and added fussiness, also put two dinner plates in the oven to warm.
2. Dust the liver slices lightly with coconut flour (you don't need much) and season with salt and pepper. In another frying pan, just big enough to hold the liver slices, heat the remaining fat over high heat. When the fat is hot, add the liver and cook until you see beads of blood on the top surface of the liver, 45 seconds to 1 minute, turn and cook on the other side for about 30 seconds, or until you again see beads of blood form. Transfer the liver to (warm) plates.
3. Add vinegar to the pan, stir to deglaze, scraping up the browned bits, and then add the pan juices to the onion mixture. Top the liver with onion mixture (or as in my photo, top onions with liver) and serve.