Pig's Liver with Oloroso Sherry, Pine Nuts and Raisins

We have started buying Organic Meat Boxes from Swillington Farm in Leeds. Once a month an exciting delivery of a variety of meat is unpacked on to the kitchen table and I start to dream up how it will all be cooked.

This month a curve ball was thrown in, in the shape of Pig's Liver.  Fine, not a problem, I've never cooked pig's liver, I'm not certain that I've ever eaten pig's liver (other than in pate) but I'm a firm believer that every part of an animal should be eaten to make its life worth while.  Z on the other hand, while sharing my "whole animal" mentality is an ex-vegi and still has some bete noires when it comes to meat and offal is high on the list.  I wanted to cook more than the traditional liver and onions but wanted to do something a bit more special that would make the liver shine.  I was stumped and so I went to the library (kitchen shelf) for inspiration.

Now, I know I said that I don't follow recipes but I needed this to be a success otherwise at least one of us would go hungry and the other would have egg on their face. I trawled through my eclectic cookbook selection and finally found a calves liver recipe with so few ingredients it was all I could do not to follow the instructions to the letter (apart from the animal in question).

All that I needed now was a bottle of Oloroso and I was away...

Dear Leeds, where do you keep your supplies of Oloroso?

Turns out M&S have a cracking selection of Sherry, who'd have thought it!

The liver is fried hot and fast, only a minute on each side, and then softened onions, garlic, toasted pine nuts and raisins are added to the pan before adding the booze and cooking just long enough for the alcohol to burn off.  Served with a bitter salad and home made pitta bread.