Friday, May 18, 2012

In the Kitchen: Sweet Potato and Liver Pottage


Don’t pretend; you know you like my cooking :) Well, even though it’s never mostly the traditional food you expect. Today, we’re getting our iron in with sweet potatoes and liver. No, don’t flip over to yesterday’s post. Work with me here.

For those of you reading this recipe who are not from one of the British colonies, you probably have no idea what a pottage is. It’s basically like a stew with a combination of ingredients, usually tomato based, that lasts for a few days and can be heated and reheated. Basically, the perfect idea for daily left-overs. I like vegetables in everything, so you’ll always see some vegetables in any recipe on here.

So let’s cook shall we? (Oh, and by the way, I have to apologize for my amateur photography before you read this)

Ingredients (serves 4):
4 sweet potatoes
½ lb okras
½ teaspoon dry hot pepper
1 teaspoon curry
1 lb broccoli
6 oz tomato paste (or tomato sauce)
1 lb chicken liver
8 oz spinach
1 seasoning cube (my preference is Knorr)
Some salt
1 tbsp palm oil
Lots of water!

Directions:
Peel your sweet potatoes, season them with a dash of salt, and bring them to a boil with about 1 cup of water. Let them cook for about 15 minutes or to your desired texture.
 
While the sweet potatoes cook, chop up the liver, season it with a dash of salt, and bring to a boil for about 10 minutes. 


While those are cooking, you can chop up the spinach, broccoli, and okra. I had chopped and frozen the okra beforehand.


Once the sweet potatoes and the liver are cooked, dice up the sweet potatoes like you would if you were making soup.

Put the palm oil in a fresh pan. You only need the oil so the food does not stick, and to give it a tad bit of flavor, so do not overdo the dish with oil. I tried to stick to 1 tablespoon only. A great way to make the most of your oil is to throw in about a tablespoon, and use the spoon to spread the oil around the pan. Bring the oil to the stove.


When the palm oil is hot enough, throw in the tomato paste. I only use tomato paste because it makes the pottage thicker, so you can use blended tomatoes or tomato sauce. However, because it is a paste, and because you have virtually no oil, it could start to burn up pretty quickly. To keep it fluid, I throw in the liver and the liver stock. Add in a dash of salt, the seasoning cube, the pepper, and the curry. Stir, and let it cook for about 10 minutes.

Time for the veggies! Don’t add them all at once though because they have varying absorption speeds. Put the okra in first, and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Next, throw in the sweet potatoes and stir.

After about 5 minutes, throw in the broccoli. If your pottage is thick by now, the broccoli should provide enough juice to water it down a bit. You can throw in the broccoli and spinach at the same time, or wait 5 minutes and then put the spinach in. 

Everything is in now, so you can stir and let it cook for about 5 minutes. You’re done!


Because it is a tomato based stew, it usually tastes better once you’ve let it sit for a few hours. Try the recipe and let me know what you think. I know some folks would be adding more pepper in there.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

1 comment:

  1. I love chicken liver. I never try to combine the chicken liver with sweet potato. But I think the addition of chicken liver in your recipe would even make this paste smoother. Just my thought. I, myself, love to fry or cook the liver with lots of chili. Thanks for the recipe anyway.
    How to Make Sweet Potato Fries

    ReplyDelete

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