Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Open Faced Liver Paté LeverPostej Meatloaf Sandwiches

Open Faced Liver Paté LeverPostej Meatloaf Sandwiches

A traditional open-faced sandwich featuring meatloaf flavored with bacon and liver, topped with pickled beets, sautéed mushrooms, even crispy bacon and onions

Open Faced Liver Paté LeverPostej Meatloaf Sandwiches | Farm Fresh Feasts




 Follow me | Pinterest | Instagram | Facebook



This open-faced sandwich is for the hard core carnivore out there.  Not those of you who dabble in boneless, skinless, chicken breasts.  Nope.  This is for those of you who will eat the whole cow, tongue to tail.  [I deliberately exclude myself from the head, though if someone presents me with a slice of head cheese I'll eat it.  I'm just not gonna make it and blog about it, okay?] It briefly passed through my brain to apologize to my vegetarian readers [thank you for stopping by! If you'd like a vegetarian open-faced sandwich recipe, here's my shaved beet one] for posting yet another meat-containing recipe, and then I realized that no, I'm going to own this.
In my opinion, it is disrespectful to the animal to cherry pick the handful of parts that you choose to consume.  I'm not saying to rush out and eat bung, instead I am saying to broaden your horizons and try more than just steaks and burgers or boneless skinless chicken breasts.  Beef tongue is pretty tasty, and the tail--man, I'm drooling just thinking about Elise's oxtail stew recipe.  But each bovine only has 1 tongue and, sadly, 1 tail.  There's a lot more to that animal--including the liver.

This, as you can tell from the head-scratching 'how do you pronounce it?**' title, contains liver.  If you like liver, you'll probably love it.  If you don't like liver, this smells like bacon while it's cooking and looks like meatloaf after it's baked, so give it a try.  My kids are not fans of the beets and mushrooms, so for them they are just eating a meatloaf sandwich, but you're welcome to make it your own. Try this, broaden your horizons, and respect the animal that you choose to consume.


Open Faced Liver Paté LeverPostej Meatloaf Sandwiches | Farm Fresh Feasts


This recipe is my adaptation of a traditional Danish open-faced sandwich or smørrebrød (literal translation is butter bread) using liver paté or leverpostej.  Like a Reuben sandwich is traditionally served with sauerkraut, swiss cheese, and thousand island dressing, the Danish leverpostej smørrebrød is served with pickled beets and sautéed mushrooms, sometimes crispy bacon or onions.


Open Faced Liver Paté LeverPostej Meatloaf Sandwiches | Farm Fresh Feasts

For more recipes using beets, please see my Beet Recipes Collection. For more recipes using mushrooms, please see my Mushroom Recipes Collection. These are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating a varied diet sourced from the neighbor's friend's cows, the farm share, the farmer's market, and the garden.
I'm pinning Scandinavian Recipes and More to my Pinterest boards, follow me there. Want to see the world's most handsome Basset hound, Robert Barker? I'm sharing a peek behind the scenes on my Instagram feed, follow me there. When an article catches my eye and makes me laugh or think, I share it on my Facebook page, follow me there. Want to know How to Use This Blog?


Open Faced Liver Paté LeverPostej Meatloaf Sandwiches | Farm Fresh Feasts


LeverPostej Liver Paté Meatloaf

Ingredients


  • ¾ pound liver
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/3 pound bacon
  • ¾ cup (2 small) onions, chopped
  • 1 cup chopped white mushrooms
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 egg
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1 cup soft breadcrumbs
  • ½ cup heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1 teaspoon dried dill (or 2-3 teaspoons fresh, unless you're confused if your kid harvested dill or fennel. They looked the same to me and my nose isn't working.)
  • 2 teaspoons salt (I used kosher)
  • 1 teaspoon pepper


For the sandwiches, you'll also need slices of sturdy bread, butter, pickled beets, and more sautéed mushrooms, crispy bacon, and onions (all optional).

Instructions


  1. In a small bowl, soak liver in milk for an hour in the refrigerator, then drain.
  2. In a large skillet over medium heat, sauté bacon until crisply cooked.  Remove from skillet (don't clean out that wonderful bacon grease!) and set aside to cool briefly.
  3. Finely chop the soaked liver and sauté in the same skillet over medium heat until firm and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool briefly.
  4. In the same skillet sauté onion and mushrooms until they are softened and the mushrooms give up their liquid.  Set aside to cool briefly.
  5. Place all of the cooked and cooled items into the food processor and pulse to a homogenous mix.
  6. In a large bowl combine the rest of the meatloaf ingredients (ground beef through pepper) with the cooked mix.  Combine thoroughly (I do this by hand, but the paddle of a stand mixer works fine too.
  7. Pack into a loaf pan.  Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour. 
  8. Cool 10 minutes until firm, then slice.
  9. To make the sandwiches, lay a slice of Liver Postej on top of buttered sturdy bread.  Top with pickled beets, sautéed mushrooms, crispy bacon and onions if you like.  
  10. Eat with a knife and fork, the Danish way.


**My brother will correct me, I am sure--though my Danish sister-in-law will not, but I pronounce it lever post-eye.


Open Faced Liver Paté LeverPostej Meatloaf Sandwiches | Farm Fresh Feasts


This post is shared on Fresh Foods Wednesday and What's Cookin' WednesdayClever Chicks Blog HopTasty TuesdaysFood on Friday

6 comments:

  1. I have really been trying to eat more liver and this sounds yummy, although I have been skipping bread so I have to think what I would put it on!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alyssa,
      You're pretty clever thinking up alternates to meet your needs. Instead of serving this on bread--maybe a twist on Larb, and have this on a lettuce or cabbage leaf? Thanks!

      Delete
  2. While I'm not a hard core carnivore (or a carnivore at all), I sure do appreciate your take on eating meat and using the whole animal. Waste not, want not right.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Meghan,
      Exactly right and very well put. Thanks for being an understanding vegetarian.

      Delete
  3. Thank you for linking up at Tasty Tuesdays! Your post has been pinned to my Recipes from Tasty Tuesday board. I can't wait to see what you link up next week!
    Have a terrific weekend!
    Cathy
    APeekIntoMyParadise.com
    #TastyTuesdays

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cathy,
      I appreciate the pin--thanks for hosting!

      Delete