I kind of feel like the last few days have been a bit of a microcosm of my 15 minute meal experience as a whole. There have been ups and downs, hits and misses and ultimately I feel a bit like I've been organising my life around my 15 minute meal schedule. I'm not going to miss this blogging malarkey when I'm done... I will continue to make 15 minute meals next year, and I may even continue blogging on some trivial subject or other (there is a bit of satisfaction in it) but no way will I set myself a target of doing something by the end of the year. The number of evenings, weekends and days at work* that have been consumed by blog writing, who knows what I might have achieved had I not had this obligation?
Anyway, enough of the life story. Back on January 6th I kicked off this challenge with a chicken meal (a good but fairly unremarkable Golden Chicken). Since then I've cooked 14 further chicken meals which have included the good (Incredibly Delicious Chicken Salad) to the mediocre (Mexican chicken with that hideous mole sauce) to the not actually chicken at all (Crispy Duck Parcels) and today I am finishing the chapter with a meal which a lot of people would probably avoid all together - chicken livers. Not me though - and Lolz helpfully informed me that she is actually a big fan of chicken livers and that she has fond memories of a chicken liver salad that she used to have in a pub that she worked in several years ago - no pressure then.
I decided to buy organic livers to be on the safe side and, having never cooked them before myself, meticulously cleaned them before starting cooking. There is nothing particularly difficult in the cooking, but you do need to keep your eye on a few things. The toasts under the grill in particular need to be checked for burnage, while the livers are quite delicate little things and overcooking by a few seconds could ruin them. Thankfully the salad was much more straightforward - although alfalfa sprouts are one ingredient that have eluded me on more than one occasion during this challenge. I should admit in fact that I did get creative with several ingredients today. I can't be bothered to buy a whole bottle of something if I only need a few drops so omitted marsala and marmalade and swapped in other ingredients that were already in the cupboard.
It was delicious. The livers have an amazing depth of flavour and are perfectly complemented by the sweetness of the sauce and the aroma of the rosemary. The toasts are good for mopping up the remaining sauce and even the salad is a bit more interesting than the usual offering.
Lolz gave the dish (under no coercion by myself whatsoever ;) 10/10. Difficulty rating 6/10.
*If any former or current managers are reading, this is, of course, a joke.
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