Mike van de Elzen: Fired duck livers with port and cream

 Fired duck livers with port and cream 

Cook time: 25 minutes 

Prep time: 30 minutes 

Serves: 6

250 gm duck livers  

1/2 cup red wine  

1/4 cup port  

3/4 cup cream  

6 field mushrooms  

1/2 onion, peeled and sliced thin  

2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

2 tbsp sunflower oil  

Salt and pepper

Take a large cast iron or similar pan. Heat to a high heat.  

Add the oil and quickly add in the onions and garlic. Then add in the livers and continue to cook for a couple of minutes until the livers are well coloured on both sides.  

Add the red wine and port and quickly reduce. Once it reduces by half, add in the cream, mushrooms, salt and pepper. When the livers are pink inside, remove and continue to reduce the sauce until thick.  

To serve, toast some sourdough or similar and spoon the livers and sauce over the top.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Joining me now is our resident chief Mike vand Alison.
Good morning, Good morning. You've got something quite impressive sounding
for us today and very rich. Five livers with port
and cream. Where does this come from?

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Wow? It's duck season.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Oh, I mean more ethically, but you know, ethnically, but.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Were probably it would be more of a French cuisine. Okay,
but you get it, you get you know, duck liber
is a massive all through you know, Spain and Portugal,
they're huge. But this particular dish I served, I created
at Moulton, going back, going back sixteen odd years ago
and probably longer actually.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
And time because this is the beginning this weekend does
mark the beginning of duck season, doesn't it?

Speaker 3 (01:10):
It is? It is so all those ducks watch out,
they're coming for you.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
It's port and cream waiting for you.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
It's so this this recipe is, you know, it does
use duck livers. Difference between chicken livers and duck livers.
Duck livers, I guess, are a little bit more, have
a little bit more strengthen a little bit more gamy.
They tend to be darker, they tend to kind of
potentially have more blood in them, so they are a

(01:41):
stronger liver. However, you do get their gaminess out of them.
So if you are in that position and you're shooting
ducks or you're out there and you're like, what do
I do with the liver? Here?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
You go, Okay, take us through it.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
So I call it fired because the word fired kind
of runs to the fact that this is a really
fast cooking dish. So your pan needs to be super hot.
So get everything really, I've got two hundred and fifty
grands of duck livers. If you can't find duck livers,
or you haven't got duck livers, check the livers just
as good, just as delicious. So get everything ready. So

(02:15):
I run through the ingredients. Firstw hundred and fifty grands
of duck livers, half a cup of red wine, quart
of a cup of port, three quarters of a cup
of fresh cream. But I've got sex field mushrooms. But hey,
if you've got a bunch of mushrooms, just chop those
guys up. Half an onion or a slot either either
it's been felled and peeled and sliced super thin. Two
clothes of garlic and crush those up. And then you've

(02:38):
got a couple of tablespoons of some flour, oil, salt, pepper.
That's your ingredients ready to go. Once you've got all
those ready, you take your I've got a cast iron pair,
get that kranking, add in the oil. It's going to
be hot, so it's going to smoke. Then go the onions.
Then go the garlic. Saute, saute literally thirty seconds. Then
go in the livers. Cook them on one side. Resist

(03:01):
to resist the temptation to turn them too quickly, because
you want color, color as flavor. Leave them for about
thirty seconds, turn them, leave them for about another thirty seconds,
and then in goes the red wine. In goes the port.
Be careful don't stand too close, otherwise you'll lose all
your hair, because it is going to fire up. Once

(03:21):
that fire disappears, then go on the cream. Three cause
a cup of cream, mushrooms that have been chopped up,
Add those in and then reduce the whole lot down.
So we're going to leave those livers in there for
a further thirty seconds. So we're talking about a minute
and a half to two minutes of cooking in total.
The after thirty seconds, once you've added the cream, add

(03:43):
for a leave for another fifty seconds. Then take the
livers out, because what we don't want to do is
we don't want to overcook those livers because then the
iron comes out and they become very strong and dry
and bitter. So we take those out, set those aside,
and then continue to reduce the cream down with the
mushrooms in it. Once that becomes nice and thick, season
it up, live a salt, good crack of pepper, have

(04:03):
it ald taste. If you're happy with it, then go
back to your livers, place them on to maybe a
piece of toasted surdo, for instance, and then spoon that
lashouse mushroom cream sauce over the top of them, and
then serve them immediately.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
So same to this, the key is not overcooking.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Absolutely all with all livers. The key is to serve
them just under. You want them to be pink, you
want them to be slightly bloody. You don't want them
to be fully cooked through. Otherwise that's where everyone's like, oh,
these are so dry and strong and horrible. If they're
just under, they keep their moisture brilliant.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Love it. Thank you so much, Mike. You can find
that recipe good from scratch dot co dot inz, or
you can head to News Talk SEDB dot co dot inz.
Excuse me forward slash.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
Sunday for more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin.
Listen live to News Talks the B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio