Looking for a cost-effective way to simultaneously impress and disturb your dinner guests this Halloween season?
All you need is a bottle of Chianti wine, a couple cans of fava beans, and a few chicken livers and you can re-create one of the most famous lines in thriller film history—if you’ve seen The Silence of the Lambs you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.
Agent Clarice Starling tells psychopathic convict Hannibal Lecter to turn his own high-powered perception on himself. “A census taker once tried to test me,” Lecter repies. “I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chi-an-ti.” He then makes a terrifying slurping noise and tells Starling to fly away.
There’s something undeniably magnetic and weirdly refined about Anthony Hopkins performance. As Roger Ebert wrote, “He may be a cannibal, but as a dinner party guest he would give value for money (if he didn’t eat you).”
I would suggest screening the film either before or during the meal to get the full ambient effect. Or, if you’re not a thriller fan at least give that chicken liver a try if you haven’t before. It’s very cheap (half a kilo is only 4 dollars at Quick Pick), ridiculously healthy, and the texture is reminiscent of chocolate mousse if that chocolate was actually meat—which is pretty interesting once you get used to it.
Chicken liver: a Miran Mirza dish
-Half a kilo of chicken livers
-1/2 cup of olive oil
-¼ cup of pomegranate molasses or
-¼ cup of lemon juice and stock or wine
-Salt and pepper to taste
1) Put 1/2 cup of olive oil in a large pan—set the burner from medium to high.
2) Add all of the livers—it may seem like they don’t fit but they’ll shrink as they cook. They might pop so use a cover over the pan.
3) Sear the livers (they should be a light brown colour when cooked). Let them cook until they seem dry.
4) Wait until after the livers are dry to add seasoning (if you add seasoning before it will dry out with the livers). Add salt and pepper to taste.
After seasoning add ¼ cup of pomegranate molasses. If you can’t find the molasses, a combination of lemon juice and stock or lemon juice and wine will also work.
The dish should cook for 20-30 minutes from the time you put the livers in. There should be no prominent reds in the liver—that’s how you can tell it’s cooked all the way.
Fava/faba beans and Garlic
Fava beans, also known as faba beans have a mild chestnut flavor when cooked. I adapted this recipe from one on the Mayo clinic website but added far more seasoning than they suggested.
-2 cans faba beans (about 2 cups)
-1 tsp. of salt
-2 tbsp. olive oil
-½ cup of onion
-1-2 tbsp. minced garlic
-1 cup vegetable stock/chicken stock
-1 tsp. pepper
-2 tsp. parsley
Faba bean prep:
1) Bring a large saucepan ¾ full of water to a full boil and then add the faba beans. Depending on how large your saucepan is you may have to cook the beans in batches.
2) Leave the faba beans in to cook for 4-5 minutes. Drain the pan out and set the beans aside.
3) Add olive oil and onions to the pan. Sauté until the onions are slightly brown.
4) Add garlic but don’t let it brown.
5) Add faba beans and stock and bring the dish to a boil. Let it simmer and sample to ensure the faba beans are cooked.
6) After cooking, season the beans with pepper and parsley.
Make sure you add the classy finishing touch to your meal with a nice chianti.
Ruffino Chianti is on the cheap side at $12, and has a pleasant fruity flavor, but it’s dark red pigment will stain your guests’ teeth a bit. This will be amusing for you but slightly unsettling for them especially if you decide to show them a film about a bloodthirsty cannibal.
Happy Halloween everyone!
