Very easy and delicious liver ready in just 15 minutes. Healthy and nutritious for children but also for adults due to its high iron content. An excellent source of protein and a real multivitamin. Serve with french fries or rice. Whatever the side it is just perfect! The truth is of course that many avoid it because it can very easily become hard or like rubber. To prevent this from happening, it’s usually recommended to marinate in milk, which is the most popular “technique”, or in lemons, vinegar, onions and various other things that also help getting rid of the heavy smell of the liver, which I find useless since whenever I cook liver, it smells incredibly good!

I have also heard and read about other methods that I really don’t know if they worth laughing or crying about.  Such examples are the use of soda as is usual in chickpeas, but also the use of asbestos, Dear Lord! Also, another great idea is to boil it first and then fry it and the only thing I can think of is … Jesus, as a friend of mine used to say! I left the best tip for last and I think we have a winner, who suggests us to cover the liver with a film and weigh it with a hammer! A minute’s silence please and some of you might wonder if this technique involves beef or dinosaur liver or if someone should advise him to find a new butcher …

Others, of course, claim that the liver becomes juicy with minimal cooking, ie it just gets some colour on the outside but inside it’s still red. Something that is perfectly legitimate and of course it will be juicy and soft since it’s almost uncooked. But in Greece, most people, don’t prefer it. So today we will make a liver soft as cotton, without marinating, well-cooked inside but nevertheless juicy and delicious! The only thing you have to worry about is not to miss the delicious juices and make sure you get fresh crispy bread. You will definitely need it!

Ingredients

• 500 g beef liver
• 500 g mushrooms
• Salt, pepper, oregano
• Olive oil
• Lemon

Mushrooms are optional as is the amount you put. 

Preparation

Wash the liver and let it drain. Cut the mushrooms into slices. Cover the bottom of a pan or a shallow saucepan with olive oil. Heat the oil at a very low temperature, i.e. at half of the final intensity. Season the liver with salt, pepper and oregano on both sides. Put the mushrooms in the pan and place the liver on top. Close the lid and let the liver simmer for about 5-7 minutes. The time depends on the temperature of the hearth.

Then open the lid and bring the mushrooms to one side of the pot. Turn the liver on the other side and leave it for another 5-7 minutes. Remove the pot from heat and pour the lemon juice.

Don’t add any water to the food. At low temperatures, the mushrooms release liquids while getting soft at the same time. It is the only recipe I do this because usually, the mushrooms need high temperature and a hot pan. But in this case, they create an incredible juice that you shouldn’t miss. Like I did today, because of the photo shoot. I lost the juice and all that was left was the oil. But it doesn’t matter … The slow cooking and the closed lid result in a liver that is between steamed and fried and remains soft even when it cools. If you have leftovers for the next day, cut it into very small cubes and mix it with the rice and the liver juice. It becomes fantastic! And if you are wondering why not on the first day the answer is obvious. Because you want to dip in the juice with fresh crispy bread!

Enjoy!

Νanà…