Baked Bacon-Wrapped Chicken

I am not that much of a big fan of bacon.  It was banned in my mother's house.  The first I ever heard or saw of bacon was at a breakfast buffet at the Manila Hotel.  I remember it clearly, like it was yesterday.  I was 9 or 10, it was during summer break, and my father said it would be fun.  It would have been fun, except that my parents argued.  About what you may wonder?  Well, the buffet then was basic with pancakes, garlic rice, hash brown, bread and various deli meats (hotdogs, ham, that sort of thing), and bacon, which I wanted to try.  My parents disagreed - in the end my mom won and no bacon for me.

Fast forward to college and someone asked me to the Saisaki Eat-All-You-Can Tempura.  My companion, in addition to the tempura, ordered the bacon-wrapped kani (Kani Bacon Maki, if I remember correctly).  That was my first taste of bacon, and I liked it!

Still I did not eat much of it because I did not like the fatty part (yes, thanks to my mom, I do not like the fat part of pork!) but when I could find lean bacon, I indulged.

Well, recently hubby brought back a lot of bacon after his gig in the province.  At first I was excited, until I saw that there was little meat and a whole lot of fat!  That put me off, but I trimmed most of the fat away and ended up with just enough to wrap some chicken livers...

12 pieces of chicken livers (cleaned, trimmed, patted dry)
6 pieces bacon, sliced in half

Wrap the liver in bacon and secure with toothpicks.  Arrange on a Pyrex dish and bake in a preheated 375F oven for about 15 to 20 minutes (depending on the size of the livers), until a tester comes out clean and no blood comes out of the liver.

Higado a la Italiana

Hubby likes liver.  And peppers.  And onions.

Me?  Nope.  But because hubby does, I cook them for him.  This time, all in one dish.

I had planned on an adaptation of Julia Child's Liver and Onions (yes, I am utterly fascinated by her cookbook Julia's Kitchen Wisdom, recipe on page 42), but in the end, I chose to adapt this recipe, especially the marinade.  For the peppers and onions, I followed Julia Child's Pipérade recipe, of course slightly adapted too.

Higado a la Italiana, my way:

Liver part:

500 grams liver, cleaned and trimmed to 400 grams or so, sliced into relatively thick slices.

(I used pork liver, but everyone else recommends calf liver.)

Marinate liver in a mixture of:

8 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon cumin
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cava wine vinegar
1/8 cup olive oil

Meanwhile, preheat the wok/skillet with about 1/4 to 13 cup canola oil and prepare the following:

1 large onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 small green pepper, julienned
1 small red pepper, julienned
1 small yellow pepper, julienned
1/2 teaspoon oregano, or Italian spice mix
pinch of salt

Flash fry the liver (Julia Child recommends a light dredging in flour, but I was in a hurry and skipped this) then remove from the pan.

Saute the onions and garlic in the same pan (remove excess oil if you like).  Add the pepper strips and stir fry.  Season with oregano or Italian spice mix, and salt.  When the peppers are halfway done, add back the livers and cook until your desired done-ness.  Hubby and Lola N like their livers still pink in the middle but A-te J likes them pretty well done.  Solution?  Remove hubby's portion when done and continue cooking the rest!

In any case, serve immediately!  In my experience, liver does not taste good when they've cooled!

Menudo, My Way

Where I'm from, menudo is a tomato-based stew of pork and liver.  Usually it also has tomatoes, carrots, raisins, garbanzos, green peas, pimientos and red hotdogs!  It's definitely not the Mexican menudo, which is with tripe.

My version always skips the peas (which I loathe) and the raisins (which I like on their own but not in cooked food).  I always use liverspread instead of actual liver (because while I like the flavor, I do not like the texture!).  I also like putting in garbanzos and red hotdogs, but since hubby does not like either of those things (and for once, I acquiesced and used real liver), this is how our menudo is -

My recipe...

800 grams pork shoulder, skin trimmed off
200 grams pork liver
2 thin slices of ginger
4 to 6 cloves garlic, minced
1 large sweet onion, minced
4 largish tomatoes, sliced
1 to 2 large pimientos, sliced
3 medium sized potatoes (about 500 grams total), diced
1/2 cup tomato sauce (optional)
3 pieces dried bay leaves
salt and pepper, to taste

Dice or cube the pork and liver in roughly the same size (I like the pieces in 1-inch cubes).  Marinate in a little soy sauce for about 10 minutes.

 Saute the ginger and flash fry the liver.  Remove from the pan and discard the ginger.

Saute the garlic and onion until soft and fragrant.  Add the tomatoes and pimientos.   Stir fry several minutes then throw in the pork and stir fry a couple of minutes.  Add the tomato sauce, if using, and the potatoes.  Pour enough water or stock to barely cover the meat and potatoes.  Season to taste.  Throw in the bay leaves.  Let simmer until pork is cooked and sauce is slightly thickened and reduced.  Put back the liver and remove from heat once the mixture comes to a soft boil.

Serve on top of steamed rice!

Pork, Liver and Celery Stirfry

This week has indeed been busy, and I mean even the nights!  We're usually home for dinner but for some reason or another, this week found us having dinner out... for meetings or with friends.  Tonight is actually the first night this week that I cooked dinner!  And it's the weekend already!

This dish is a request from hubby.  It seems we had been having chicken more often than usual so he was missing pork a bit.  He specifically asked for stir fried pork with celery, but when we found really fresh pork liver, he asked if we could have some in the stirfry too.  My reply?  Of course!  I may not be a fan of liver but I do like its flavor (it's the texture that puts me off)

It's quite easy to make, too!

2 small pork tenderloin pieces (about 600 grams total)
150 grams pork liver
about 4 to 5 large stalks of celery, sliced diagonally
4 slices of ginger
1 small onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 to 2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
cornstarch slurry

Slice the tenderloin into thin strips then marinate in a tablespoon of soy sauce and some black pepper for about 10 to 15 minutes.  Meanwhile slice the liver into triangles (this is "traditional" shape that I grew up with) and marinate in a teaspoon of soy sauce for 5 to 10 minutes.

Heat a wok until almost smoking and throw in the ginger.  After a couple of seconds add the liver and flash fry a few seconds only.  Remove the liver from the wok.  Saute the onion and garlic.  Add the celery and the pork tenderloin.  Season with another tablespoon of soy sauce (or as preferred) and oyster sauce.  Stir fry until pork is cooked.  Add the liver back to the pan and stir fry another couple of seconds.  Thicken the sauce with cornstarch slurry.

It was perfect on top of rice, on this rainy evening!