Recipe of the week: Black Sheep liver

Mixing Yorkshire ale with locally sourced liver, the Black Sheep variation offers a distinctive taste, unlike most liver-based dishes. Complete with crispy streaked bacon or pancetta, together with a couple of dashes of Worcestershire sauce, the dish has an added kick to it, which is balanced by mashed potatoes and homemade gravy. Serves 4.

Ingredients

500g of thinly sliced liver (ask your butcher to do this)
1-1.5kg peeled potatoes
4oz butter
Milk/cream
Fresh sage/parsley
Two bottles of Black Sheep Ale/Riggwelter
2kg beef/lamb bones
One leek
One carrot
Half an onion
A chopped stick of celery
200g tomato paste/puree
Pint of water
Tablespoon of garlic puree
Cornstarch
Sunflower/rape seed oil
Two thinly sliced onions
Salt and pepper
Worcestershire/Yorkshire sauce
Streaky bacon/pancetta

Directions

Preparation time: 1 hour.

Cooking time: 1 hour 50 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 200̊C.

Bring the potatoes to boil and simmer for around 25- 30 minutes.

When cooked the potatoes should start to break up, so check by using a fork.

Drain the potatoes in a colander and turn back into the pan and dry out over a little heat, to take off any excess water.

In a small pan or microwaveable dish, put the butter and a drop of milk or cream, then heat and melt together and add this to the potatoes.

Season and mash the potatoes. You can add some chopped fresh sage or parsley at this point.

To make the gravy, which can be made in advance, put the beef/lamb bones in a baking tray with the vegetables all chopped up and smother in the tomato paste/purée.

Roast in the oven at 200̊C for around 45 minutes until the bones are brown and tomato paste caramelised.

Drain any fat off the bones and put in to a heavy and deep pan or casserole dish with the vegetables, two bottles of Black Sheep ale or Riggwelter, a pint of water and a table spoon of garlic purée. Bring to a boil on high heat and skim off any impurities, then turn down heat and simmer for around two hours until its reduced by half.

Then thicken with a little corn starch and pass through a sieve into a jug and leave to one side.

Dispose of the bones and vegetables and wash the pan. Return to medium heat and add a few drops of sunflower oil or rape seed oil with two thinly sliced onions, moving them around until caramelised.

Drain off any oil and then add the gravy and simmer for 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and a couple or dashes of Worcestershire or Yorkshire sauce, if you wish to add a kick.

Pan fry the liver to your required taste and finish with a couple rashers of crisp baked streaky bacon/pancetta. Alternatively, the bacon/pancetta can be baked for 15 minutes in a hot oven until crispy, then left to go cold and blended to a crumb and sprinkled over the liver after cooking it.

Serve with the mashed potatoes and gravy.

Plate as pictured.

Thank you to Derek Ballantyne, Chef at Black Sheep Brewery, Masham, North Yorksihre, for the recipe.

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