We Heart Liver

Yesterday, I tried using my slow-cooker to cook a whole chicken. My in-laws bought our Morphy Richards slow-cooker for us a few years back and - while it gets plenty of use for stews in the winter - I've never plucked up the courage to try cooking a chicken this way, which they absolutely swear by. I have had to learn to carefully disregard the instruction booklet that was included, as it seems to imply that most of the ingredients going into the slow-cooker should be, in fact, practically cooked already. Hardly a time-saver - and even more washing up.

Hubby brought home a 1.5kg organic free-range chicken a few weeks ago, which he'd seen reduced to 9p! Bearing in mind that the original cost was nearly £7.00, that was a bargain not to be missed. I stashed it in the freezer, then defrosted it to cook yesterday. I put it in the slow-cooker on HIGH just before we sat down for lunch, then turned it down to MEDIUM mid-afternoon. The bird was fantastically succulent and juicy, though you do lose the crisp skin you'd get with a roasted chicken.

I tore up the meat from the chicken and used it for Tagliatelle with Chicken from the Venetian Ghetto from Nigella Lawson's How to Eat, which is originally a Claudia Roden recipe from her Book of Jewish Food. I left out the specified pine nuts because of the children (too chokey) and served, instead, a small dish of toasted flaked almonds alongside for Karl and I to scatter over our food at the table.

Dinner tonight was Liver and Bacon Kebabs, adapted from a recipe in one of my favourite cookbooks, Meals in Moments by Maggie Brogan. I adore liver and am lucky to have a family who share my feelings on the matter. As for the bacon, I got some great short back bacon from the butcher which was very thick cut, so I just cut it into largeish pieces and folded them in half. If you can only get thin cut bacon, use halved rashers of streaky and roll them up.

Liver & Bacon Kebabs

400g pig's liver, cut into chunks
200g bacon (see above)
250g chestnut mushrooms, halved
sunflower oil

Soak 8 wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes. Thread the liver cubes, bacon pieces and halved mushrooms onto the skewers and place on an oiled baking sheet. Brush the kebabs with a little more oil and cook at 180°c for about 20 minutes.

To go with the kebabs, I cooked some brown rice in the rice machine, then stirred through some fried onions and chopped parsley. I like a little Worcestershire sauce sprinkled over the rice too, though Karl prefers his beloved Henderson's Relish.