Albanian pan-fried liver with potato and herbs (arnavut ciğeri)

Albanians have a fierce reputation in Turkey for their butchery skills, especially in using offal cuts - that’s why this dish is called Albanian liver. It is a very common dish in all meyhanes (bars) around Turkey as the protein-rich liver is ideal to accompany raki, the national drink of Turkey.

• serves

  4

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  10 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 500 g veal or calf’s liver
• 300 ml full-cream milk
• 250 g chat potatoes
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• ½ tbsp sea salt
• 2 tbsp sumac
• 1 lemon
• 35 g (¼ cup) plain flour
• 60 ml (¼ cup) vegetable oil
• 40 g butter
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp sesame seeds
• 1 tsp dried or wild thyme
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp sumac, extra
• lemon juice, to taste

Marinating time: 3 hours

Instructions

Clean the liver, removing the outer skin. Rest in the milk for a minimum of 3 hours to overnight in the refrigerator. 

Boil the potatoes for 3 minutes. Cool and cut into 1 cm cubes.

Combine the salt, sumac, onion and half of the parsley in a bowl. Squeeze the mixture with your hands to release the juice of the onion mixture, discarding the juice. Set the onion mixture aside.

Take out the liver from milk, pat dry and cut in to 1 cm cubes.

Coat liver in the flour and toss in a sieve to remove excess flour. 

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over high heat. When sizzling, add the potato and cook for 1 minute.

Add the liver, stirring to mix thoroughly. Cook for 3 minutes or until just cooked through. 

Add the butter and herbs and season with salt and pepper. Stir to combine.

Season with the lemon juice and add the remaining parsley. Stir to combine.

Serve with the onion salad on top. 

Chef's notes

The milk softens the liver and draws out the blood, more than if it was soaked in water.

Coating the liver in flour prevents it from overcooking in the pan.

Somer Sivrioglu is the head chef at Anason and Efendy. This recipe is from The Chefs' Line - a brand new series airing weeknights at 6pm on SBS. Can the passion of a home cook beat the skills of a professional chef? Missed all the action? Catch-up online and get all the recipes #TheChefsLine.

This recipe has been edited by SBS Food and may differ slightly from the series.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.