Welcome to this new addition to the Wolfecast – Wolfe Eats! As we move through the series, we will additionally recreate a meal from the book. With all the delicious meals mentioned in the books, we are sure that our bellies and minds will be occupied 🙂 The book that will be referenced for these recipe choices is The Nero Wolfe Cookbook. I hope that you guys enjoy this addition and try the recipes out as well!
Chicken Livers
The recipe that we will be recreating is from Man Alive. The meal was chicken livers paired with rice cakes – quite the lunch meal. Seeing that we hadn’t had mention of many meals in the books that we have read I pledged to the next meal I saw and, well, here it is. I wasn’t a fan of either choice, but went with the chicken livers, as I have eaten beef liver and loved pate…so I was hoping this would be the lesser of two evils! As we can see from the blurb below, I should have maybe gone with the rice cakes.
The Process
This seems like a simplistic meal: just a few ingredients, and a simple preparation – almost too simple for someone like Wolfe and Fritz’s taste. I decided to get the freshest of fresh when it came to chicken livers and let me tell you it was something else to deal with these little orbs of meat. Nothing like beef liver, they were milky in color with a smooth surface that made me think of jiggly shells. I was not a fan and really did not want to continue (I will spare you all pictures). However, the simple prep made this a quick-to-do meal – a total of 20 mins from start to finish. Putting it all together, I could not see this as a meal prepared by Fritz, but that is just my take on it; maybe I need to be classically trained to fully enjoy it.
End Results and Taste Test
This was a very interesting meal. I enjoyed the freshness of the tomatoes before cooking, so I would substitute fresh tomato instead, and add some crunch in the way of fried onions, or possibly frying the livers instead of sautéing them. The livers were so smooth and silky that the entire meal felt one-dimensional, and really could have been enhanced with some additional texture.
CHICKEN LIVERS
1.5 pounds chicken livers
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 large ripe tomatoes
3 teaspoon basil leaves (or 4 teaspoon dried)
1 green bell pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
Wash the livers, cutting away any membranes, and dry thoroughly. Slice them thin and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Peel the tomatoes, cut in half and sprinkle with basil. Seed the pepper and cut it into small pieces. Heat the oil in a small skillet and sauté the peppers for 3 or 4 minutes; remove with a slotted spoon and reserve. Add the chicken livers and sauté for 3 minutes, remove. Fry the tomatoes open side down for another few minutes until they are browned. Arrange the livers and tomato halves on a warm serving platter garnished with the peppers and parsley (Serves 4)
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Just found your podcast on Audible! I love it and you are inspiring me to continue my reading of the Wolfe corpus in order. When is the next podcast coming???
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Thanks so much for listening Erin! Our next episode comes out tomorrow. If you like the show you’d be doing us a huge favor by leaving a review on Audible. It’ll really help folks find the show.
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I have the Nero Wolfe Cookbook and just love reading through it. Although I think the only recipe I’ve ever made is the leg of lamb — de-lish! Now I’ll have to give this recipe a spin.
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