Peri-Peri Chicken Liver Vetkoek

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Calling Vetkoek ... Calling Vetkoek ...

The true measure of a cook lies in his or her treatment of the humble chicken liver, and in particular: peri-peri chicken livers. Oft neglected and frequently abused, the quality of this dish reveals a great deal about the cook’s respect for his or her ingredients (and guests), his or her mindset during the preparation and his or her commitment to consistently cook well.

Chicken livers are delicate things that suffer greatly under abuse, neglect or general carelessness by the cook. In many a restaurant, cooks get away with murder when it comes to peri-peri chicken livers. Turning the dish’s heat up to Vesuvian levels – and subsequently smothering everything in cream – does not a good peri-peri chicken liver make! Nor does the perfunctory addition of a slash of this or a run-of-the-mill dash of that. This dish requires a light, yet respectful touch, a tad of insight, care and constant attention to shine to its full potential.

Cook chicken livers too far and they become bitter, dry and crumbly. Undercook them and all hell will break loose at the table when the wobbly things weep bloody liquid into the sauce. However, when done to perfection (being tender and retaining a slight hint of pinkishness in the center) – with the five great tastes in harmony;  humble chicken liver becomes a sensuous joy that delights the senses, temporarily pacifies a discordant heart and quashes my rebellious spirit.

A confession: I do not like, nor voluntarily eat, chilli hot foods. A bit of mild heat here and there is sufficient for my cowardly palate. Undeniably, chillis – in moderation – do bring attractive and gentle subtlety and warmth to most dishes, yet it effortlessly overpowers and dominates other tastes and flavours.

Chicken livers, with their mildly bitter taste and somewhat delicate texture, are particularly amenable to the chilli treatment. However, a balance needs to be struck between the savoury sweetness of well caramelised onions, the salty meaty-ness of bacon and the bitterness combating level of acidity generally found in most chilli or peri-peri sauces. A test run or two with your favourite brand of chilli sauce might well be in order here.

Fruit chutney, garlic and barbeque spice serve to round out and support the fairly one dimensional taste of chicken livers. Smoked paprika does what smoked paprika does best: lend an incomparable depth and smokiness to anything it comes into contact with. A dash of fresh cream simply smoothes out any spikes or rough edges of the overall flavour profile.

I enjoy the milder Portuguese style peri-peri sauces (discussed below) as they frequently contain prominent notes of garlic, bay leaf en lemon juice – a troika that often entices placid chicken livers into doing a brisk rumba or two. Sweet chilli sauce also does particularly well as a substitute in this recipe. A slight increase in the levels of black pepper and fruit chutney might then be required to compensate for the loss of the bay leaf. The final level of chilli heat is up to the discretion and preferences of the cook and his or her fellow diners.

PERI-PERI CHICKEN LIVER VETKOEK

– PRINT RECIPE –

Recipe yields:	Preparation time:	Cooking time:	Difficulty level:
10 – 12 Portions	20 minutes	60 min	Easy

Supporting Recipe:

Vetkoek @ Home

Ingredients:

Onions, finely diced	500g
Sunflower oil	45ml
Streaky bacon, rough chopped	250g
Chicken livers, washed & cleaned	1 Kg
For the sauce:
Mild peri-peri sauce, Portuguese style	100ml
Fruit chutney	60ml
Fresh cream	45ml
Chopped garlic	30ml
Salt	15ml
Barbeque spice	7.5ml
Fine black pepper	2.5ml
Smoked paprika	2.5ml
Cayenne pepper flakes	0.5ml *
Fine white pepper	0.5ml
Hot water, depending on preferred consistency	80ml – 100ml

      * Adjust to taste

Method:

1. Sauté the onions and sunflower oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat until well caramelized, 15 – 20 minutes. Stir the onions frequently toward the end and do not allow it to char. Add extra oil if necessary. Transfer the caramelized onions to a large, heat proof bowl. Cover and keep warm.
2. Sauté the bacon along with a small quantity of sunflower oil in the same pan, still over medium heat, until well browned all over. Stir frequently. Transfer the bacon to the reserved onions. Cover and keep warm. Retain the bacon fat in the sauté pan.
3. Sauté the chicken livers in two batches in the bacon fat over medium high heat in the same pan as before. Do not turn the livers frequently as they will break up and turn mushy – particularly previously frozen livers. The livers will be ready once they are ‘dry’, stop exuding bloody liquid and are still pinkish in the centers. Remove and transfer to the bacon and onions. Cover and keep warm.
4. Combine all the sauce ingredients except the water. Add the mixture to the same pan as before, over medium low heat. Stir frequently until the sauce starts to simmer. Thoroughly scrape the pan to lift any caramelized or stuck bits into the sauce.
5. Add the reserved onions, bacon and livers. Mix and allow to heat through. Adjust the consistency of the sauce to  with the hot water to the preferred level. Allow to simmer gently for 3 minutes.
6. Remove from the heat and allow to rest 5 minutes before serving on vetkoek, mashed potatoes or excellent whitebread toast.

Portuguese Style Peri-Peri Sauce

Niki Segnit says in her encyclopedic The Flavour Thesaurus: “The Portuguese went to Mozambique and came back with chicken peri peri (or piri piri), a simple dish of flame-grilled chicken marinated in oil, chilli, salt and citrus juice.” And that is quite an adequate summation of what Portuguese style peri-peri sauce is all about.

Granted, the establishment of the Nando’s franchise group also probably contributed to the bloom in the local, quite staggering availability of peri-peri sauces based primarily on the African bird’s eye chilli and red bell peppers. The more evolved brands seem to include bay leaf, pimento (sometimes), garlic, onion and red wine vinegar (or some version of vinegar), often with some supporting blend of herbs as well.

Depending on the machismo of the manufacturer, local heat levels can vary from mild to Vesuvius-engulfing-Pompeii. South Africans have an untame-able, sadomasochistic streak when it comes to craving insane heat levels. A plethora of small, garista style manufacturers exist that specialize solely in oral agony. Their products are available at butcheries, local farmers markets, food festivals and most small, non-franchised, food related outlets. Gustatory quality ranges from – frequently – a simple, one dimensional, soul destroying chilli and vinegar burn, to quite complex and well balanced, sometimes.

Admittedly, my view on this topic is biased. I don’t see the purpose of slathering a well aged steak, or even bland, battery raised chicken, with a white hot preparation that will mask all other flavours and tastes within 10 seconds and – to boot – effectively destroy the diner’s ability to taste anything further except that flat, sweat inducing and sinus draining burn. You could just as well slather a wedge of cardboard or stick a live, electrical wire in your mouth.

© RS Young, 2017

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Sources:

1. The Flavour Thesaurus; Segint, Niki; Bloomsbury Publishing Plc; London; 2010.

2. The Penguin Companion To Food; Davidson, Alan; Penguin Books Ltd; U.K.; 2002.

3. McGee On Food & Cooking; McGee, Harold; Hodder and Stoughton; London; 2004.

Note:

Post updated on 2024.02.11 to include:

1. The updated Recipe for downloading as a PDF file, and

2. Recipe Title and Print Recipe, Recipe Index and Facebook & Pinterest follow links.