Liver and Bacon with Onion Gravy

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide, heavy-bottomed frying pan for the onions
• •Second heavy frying pan for the liver and bacon
• •Warm plates

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the onions slowly

   Melt the butter with the oil in a wide, heavy pan over a low heat. Add the onions and a good pinch of salt. Stir them through the fat, then leave them alone. This is the part that makes the whole dish, and it cannot be hurried. You want twenty-five to thirty minutes of gentle, patient cooking, stirring now and then, until the onions have gone from sharp and white to soft and golden to something dark, sweet, and sticky that smells like the best thing in the house. If they catch, the heat is too high. Turn it down. There's no recovering a scorched onion.

   Four onions sounds like a lot. It isn't. They cook down to almost nothing, and the gravy needs that sweetness. Don't cut corners here.
2. 2

   Build the gravy

   When the onions are deep amber and jammy, sprinkle over the tablespoon of flour and stir it in. Let it cook for a minute, coating the onions, then pour in the stock gradually, stirring as you go. Add the Worcestershire sauce and the mustard. Let the gravy simmer gently for ten minutes or so, until it thickens to something you'd be happy to pour from a jug. Season it well. Taste. It should be savoury and deep, with the sweetness of the onions running through it. Keep it warm while you cook the liver and bacon.

3. 3

   Crisp the bacon

   In a separate heavy frying pan, lay the bacon rashers flat over a medium heat. No oil needed. The fat will render out. Cook them until they've gone properly crisp and the edges have darkened and curled. This takes a few minutes per side. Transfer to a warm plate. Leave the bacon fat in the pan. It's about to do good work.

   Smoked streaky is the thing here. Back bacon is too lean and too polite for this dish. You want rashers that go crisp, not chewy.
4. 4

   Flash-fry the liver

   Turn the heat up under the bacon pan. Season the liver slices with salt and pepper, then dust them lightly in flour, shaking off any excess. When the pan is properly hot, lay the liver slices in, giving each one space. Do it in batches if you need to. Crowding the pan steams the liver instead of searing it, and then you've lost. Two minutes per side, no more. You're looking for a good brown crust on the outside and a blush of pink in the centre. Press a piece gently with your finger: it should give slightly, like the flesh between your thumb and forefinger when your hand is relaxed. If it's firm, you've gone too far. If you have sage leaves, drop them into the pan in the last thirty seconds and let them crisp in the hot fat.

   Overcooked liver turns chalky and bitter, and no amount of gravy will rescue it. Better to pull it a touch early than a touch late. It carries on cooking once it's off the heat.
5. 5

   Serve on warm plates

   Pile mash onto warm plates, generously. Lay the liver on top, slightly overlapping. Lean the crisp bacon against it. Spoon the onion gravy over and around, letting it pool into the mash. A few crisped sage leaves scattered over if you fried them. Bring it to the table straight away. This isn't a dish that waits.

Chef Tips

• •Ask your butcher to slice the liver for you, about the thickness of a pound coin. If you're buying it pre-packed, look for lamb's liver that's a deep, glossy reddish-brown with no dry patches. Calves' liver is finer-grained and more expensive, and beautiful if you can get it, but lamb's liver is what this dish was built for.
• •Soak the liver in milk for an hour before cooking if you want to soften the flavour. I don't always bother, but it does take the edge off for anyone who finds liver a touch strong. Drain it well and pat it dry before dusting with flour.
• •The mash matters here as much as anything else. Good floury potatoes, real butter, a splash of warm milk, and enough salt to make them sing. The gravy needs somewhere to go, and thin, wallpaper-paste mash won't do. You want it generous and soft, the kind that holds a puddle.
• •A glass of something robust alongside this. A pint of bitter, if that's your evening. Or a gutsy red, nothing fancy, a Côtes du Rhône or a Malbec. Something that can stand up to the iron and the onion and the bacon fat.

Advance Preparation

• •The onion gravy can be made a day ahead and gently reheated. It improves overnight as the onions soften further into the stock.
• •The liver must be cooked at the last minute. It takes two minutes per side and loses everything if it sits. Have your plates warm and your mash ready before the liver goes into the pan.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 300g)