Arnavut Ciğeri

Tiny floured cubes fried hard and then dressed cold, served as a meze rather than hot off the pan.

Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains lamb.

Ingredients

the liver

• 600 g lamb liver, in 1.5 cm cubes
• 4 tablespoons plain flour
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• oil, for frying, about 2 cm depth
• salt

the salad

• 1 large red onion, sliced paper thin
• 2 tablespoons sumac
• a large bunch of parsley, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon

Method

1. THE CUBES ARE TINY, FLOURED, FRIED HARD AND THEN DRESSED COLD. Every part of that is the opposite of the ciğer kebabı on the other liver page here. There the pieces are three centimetres, bare, threaded with fat, cooked over embers and eaten the second they come off. These are a centimetre and a half, rolled in seasoned flour, deep fried in two minutes, drained, cooled to room temperature and served as a meze with a sharp onion salad. So the liver here is firm and crisp-edged rather than soft, and it is eaten cold with bread and raki rather than hot with bread. Two liver dishes, two entirely different objects.
2. THE FLOUR IS WHAT MAKES THIS WORK AND IT GOES ON DRY. A light roll in flour with paprika, shaken off. It gives a thin crust that seals the cube instantly in hot oil, so the inside stays just cooked while the outside crisps -- and crucially, that crust survives cooling. Bare liver fried and cooled goes grey and weeps; floured liver cooled stays dry to the touch and keeps its edge.
3. THE LIVER IS PATTED BONE DRY BEFORE THE FLOUR GOES ON. Liver is wet and the flour turns to paste on a damp surface, then falls off in the oil in gluey sheets. Patted dry with paper, floured, and fried straight away -- it starts to go damp again within a few minutes of being coated.
4. IT IS FRIED IN SMALL BATCHES AND SALTED AFTER, NOT BEFORE. Two centimetres of properly hot oil, a handful at a time, ninety seconds to two minutes. Salt before frying draws moisture to the surface and the flour slides; salt the moment it comes out and it sticks to the hot crust.
5. THE ONION IS SLICED PAPER THIN AND RUBBED WITH SUMAC AND SALT. Then left ten minutes. The salt and the acid in the sumac take the harsh edge off raw onion and turn it slack and pink, which is the counterweight to a plate of fried offal. Sliced thick and dressed at the last second it is just raw onion.
6. The liver membrane peeled off, tubes cut out, and the liver cut into small 1.5 cm cubes.
7. PATTED BONE DRY with kitchen paper.
8. The red onion sliced PAPER THIN, rubbed with the sumac and a little salt, and LEFT 10 MINUTES to go slack and pink.
9. The flour mixed with the paprika.
10. The liver rolled in the seasoned flour and the excess shaken off. Fried straight away.
11. The oil heated to 2 cm, hot enough that a cube sizzles at once.
12. Fried in SMALL batches 90 SECONDS to 2 MINUTES, until crisp outside.
13. Lifted onto a rack and SALTED at once, while hot.
14. TESTED: a cube cut open should be just cooked and still faintly pink at the centre, with a crisp shell.
15. COOLED to room temperature on the rack -- not refrigerated and not served hot.
16. The parsley, olive oil and lemon tossed with the pink onion.
17. The cooled liver piled on a plate and the onion salad heaped over it.
18. Served at room temperature, as a meze, with bread.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes