AMSTERDAM

This might be my first post in English and it will be my first and only post about offal that is for sure. I even had to look it up in the dictionary as a non English-speaker . For the rest of you who have no clue what it is; it is the term for internal organs of a butchered animal.

Anyhow, this is my contribution to the on-line cookery challenge ‘Paper Chef’, this month hosted by Cooking up a Storm where you can find more info on the challenge itself, rules and the history.

I had to use 4 ingredients:

Offal

Spring oninons

Quinoa

And something seasonal where you live, (mind you not much of excitement if one lives in the Netherlands.)

I really wanted to join in this time, I have done so before with the Swedish version under the wings of Ilva , and looked forward to see what stuff we were allowed to use. When the knowledge of the word offal hit me, a feeling of nausea hit me too. It just is not my thing, so I thought that I was not going to join in.

Second challenge was the quinoa itself. Yes, I have heard about it and read about it everywhere – but not in the Netherlands. Dutch are not that adventurous when it comes to the everyday home cooking, perhaps also due to the supermarkets don’t carry such things.

But then again, as we see here above depicted by van Gogh, they are big on potatoes.

owever, I thought that I should surprise myself and make something out of it, and something that I would be able to eat myself without gagging.

Toasted Quinoa bread with chicken liver pâté on fennel marinated in orange.

It is quite obvious where the quinoa ended up and what offal I used. The spring onions are in the liver stuff and the fennel is the seasonal ingredient.

Quinoa bread

2,5 dl quinoa (uncooked)

5 dl whole wheat flour

some regular wheat flour

couple of table spoons of flaxseed

salt

sugar

yeast

4-5 dl water

I took a pack of fresh yeast and dissolved it with 1 dl water and a tablespoon of sugar. Then I added this to all the other ingredients and stirred it with a wooden spoon, added the rest of the water and some of the regular flour just to get a good feel to it. Then I went out doing some Saturday afternoon stuff so I guess it was sitting in my kitchen for 2 hours.

Kneed and make a loaf and let sit another hour.

Bake it for 25 min in 200 degrees C.

Chicken pâté

1 stick of celery

2 spring oninons

a handful of flat parsely

a clove or two of garlic

200 grams of chicken liver

1 spoon or so of tomato purée.

4 table spoons of triple sec and some orange zest.

In order to be able to eat any offal I had to  come up with a scheme to fool myself. Fresh, citrus and booze were the things I thought of.

I chopped celery, onions, garlic and parsley and put it in a fryingpan for about 5 mins, then added the liver and cooked it til it was almost done. Then I added tomato purée, the triple sec and the zest. Season with salt and pepper. Then I blended it with a mixer and re-fried it in butter in order to make it less ‘wet’ and get a different texture. Let it cool down.

Marinated fennel

fennel

orange

oliveoil

salt and pepper

I just cut the fennel in thin slices and poured some orange juice and zest over it, oil and salt and pepper. Then I let it sit for a while.

Result:

Yes, I ate it. The orange flavours worked well with the liver that otherwise would have been too strong for me. The fennel salad kind of ensured a fresh taste but also a bite to it. Further, it made it look better. No one can come and tell me that liver has a yummy colour so it needed something to freshen it up.

The bread need a lot of salt I would say, however it gets a nice texture with the quinoa that gets somehow cooked but keeps its shape. It is a heavy bread with a lot of flavour.

The reason I made such a thing was that I could eat and probably serve a started made of offal but not a main. There goes my limit. But it was good to become forced to eat it.