Beef Liver Curry

By Deborah Kuhnen|November 1st, 2014|Beef, Curry, gluten-free, Liver, meat|2 Comments|

I grew up eating liver.  My mum made liver and onions fairly often, probably once a month or so ever since I was little.  I always enjoyed it and never thought once of turning my nose up at it.  I didn’t know kids weren’t supposed to like liver.

Time went on, I met and married Perry and since he also liked liver, I cooked it once in a while and we both enjoyed it.

Fast forward to Krestan being born and me being a far too indulgent mom who only cooked him what he wanted to eat.  Liver wasn’t one of the things he wanted, so I basically stopped cooking it.  I don’t think I realised I’d pretty much removed it from our diets, but that’s what happened.  Occasionally we’d go out for lunch and Perry would order it and I’d think that I really had to make it again soon.  For some reason, that didn’t really happen and we probably ate liver a handful of times over the following 10 years or so.

When Krestan was about 6 or 7 years old, I started to become interested in nutrition and Perry being the person he is (thirsty for knowledge no matter what the subject) also became interested.  We started out trying things like quinoa (in 2001 I think), unhulled grains and such.  Then ventured into more interesting and obscure things such as lucuma, goji berries, raw cacao and the list goes on.  A few years ago we decided to start ordering frozen meat from a local farm where the cows are grass-fed and grass-finished and one of the items available for sale was beef liver.  We included a few pounds of liver in our order and were really excited about trying it.  I cooked it the first time and although it wasn’t terrible, I really didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d remembered.  I figured that time was a fluke and made it again a couple of months later.  Again, I didn’t dislike it, but I also didn’t love it.  This was very frustrating for me because by then I’d learned how incredibly nutritious offal is, especially when it comes from healthy, pastured animals.  Perry still loved it, but I think I’d just become a bit squeamish.  Over the last few years, I’ve made it a few times but really just ate it because I knew it was good for me, not because I was craving the taste.

Last week I decided to do something about this new-found aversion to liver.  I gave it some thought and it made sense to me that since my favourite cuisine is Indian, perhaps I could combine that with liver and come up with something I’d enjoy a lot more.  I searched online and came up with this recipe which sounded like exactly what I was looking for.  I made it for dinner and much to my delight I absolutely loved it.  I changed a few things and changed the quantities of most of the ingredients.  I opted not to boil the liver cubes first as I figured that might leach out some of the nutrients.

Here’s what I did…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beef Liver Curry

 

• 1/4 cup virgin coconut oil
• 1 tsp. garam masala
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup water
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3″ piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 5 whole cloves
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 5 green cardamom pods
• 3 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tsp. Himalayan salt
• 1 tbsp. coriander powder
• 1 tsp. cayenne
• 1 tbsp. turmeric powder
• 1lb beef liver, chopped into bite-sized pieces
• two minced Thai bird chiles
• 1/2 bunch chopped fresh cilantro

1. In a large saucepan, sauté chopped onion and garam masala in virgin coconut oil.
2. Add water, garlic, ginger, bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cloves and cumin seeds and cook until water is evaporated.
3. Add tomatoes, salt, coriander, cayenne and turmeric and continue to cook until tomatoes are soft.
4. Add liver, cilantro and Thai bird chiles and cook until liver is done (about 5 minutes), stirring occasionally.
5. Serve with cooked basmati rice, roti or over cauliflower rice if you don’t eat grains.