Prep time: 5 minutes
About this recipe
My story How to be a Domestic Therapist inspired this dish. Obviously the title is a play on Nigella Lawson’s seminal book, ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess’. There, the only offal offering is a very gutsy steak and kidney pudding. But that’s not the recipe link here. No, this is a recipe that reflects where I am at my most domestic, and what I feel most at home cooking: simple, traditional Greek Cypriot food that isn’t afraid to be itself. And what this is is robust, unpretty, unfussy fare. This is my spin on the classic Greek dish, afelia, which is traditionally made with pork. Here however, I have used chicken livers because it is an ingredient that is the subject of many a conversation with my own therapist (conversations in therapy really do take you to all sorts of places). In this dish, the wine and coriander seeds couple up to give a sweetness that is reminiscent of mulled wine. The rich citrus smelling waft that fills the house during cooking will make even the most offal anxious person feel at home enough to try this.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
- 500g chicken livers
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 200ml red wine
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt, plus extra for seasoning the chicken livers
- Freshly ground pepper
- Chopped fresh coriander to serve
Instructions
- Crush the coriander seeds using either a pestle and mortar or a spice grinder.
- Season the chicken livers. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium-high heat. Add the livers and sauté for about a minute on each side – you want the exteriors brown but the centres still very pink. Spoon the livers out into a bowl – use a slotted spoon so that any liver juices remain in the pan.
- Keeping the pan on the heat, add the crushed coriander seeds and sauté for a minute. Add 150ml of water from a recently boiled kettle. Bring to the boil then reduce until the liquid is half the original amount. Add the ½ teaspoon of cinnamon, ½ teaspoon of salt and a few grindings of freshly ground pepper.
- Return the chicken livers to the pan together with any juices that have accumulated in the bowl. Bring back to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 3-5 minutes; the livers will cook quickly (and will continue to post-cooking) so keep an eye on them – you want the livers to be softly set to the touch yet powder pink in the middle. Sprinkle over the fresh coriander and serve.