UPDATE: Looking at the chopped liver recipe for the first time in several years, and after years of bringing it to various celebrations, I realize the below version is either wrong or was right then and wrong now. So, in the original, where it calls for 3 onions, put 7. Five go into the sauteed part of the instructions and two into the final mix. Save the smaller medium for that, and use the bigger medium for saute. The onions will look amazingly copious when you put them in the pan, but they'll cook down to less than a pint of gloriously brown fragrant onion.
I wish I could claim this is "the old family recipe," but I can't. My mother made chopped liver, her aunt made chopped liver, who knows how many others made chopped liver—but I don't know if any of them wrote it down. Mostly this recipe is developed from remembered flavors and "kitchen memory" of watching my mother make it.
And who knows why I, the kid who was squeamish about many strange foods, and who still has "texture issues" with many foods, fell in love with chopped liver? Go figure.
When I first decided to make chopped liver, I was too sure of myself to look in a cookbook. I remembered what went in: livers, chicken fat (schmaltz), hard-boiled eggs and onions. I remembered that they had to go through a meat grinder (Universal No. 9, in my childhood and in my experiments).
The classic story should be that the first attempts failed, and only after many tries an edible product emerged...but that would be a lie. The ingredients are so good, so compatible, that it's almost impossible to really miss. On the other hand, I eventually ended up with a version that so many people have told me is the best they've ever had that I know it must be very good.
Ironically, it contains one element that is nowhere in a traditional Jewish chopped liver—the roasted garlic—and one that is missing from all the cookbook recipes. While writing this, I looked for the first time at printed recipes—four of them—and not one uses the sauteed onions. (By the way, one of the recipes uses celery and margarine. Enough said.) I've found friends who remember that their grandmothers used the browned onions, and Joan believes her mother did, too. So why none of the cookbook writers? -Paul
Anyway...
1 pound chicken livers
about 4 Tbsp chicken fat (schmaltz)
3 medium onions
1 head garlic, roasted
2 hard-boiled eggs
salt to taste
Slice two onions into extremely thin slices, and break them up into rings.
Melt 2 Tbsp schmaltz in a skillet, and add onions over low-medium heat.
Saute, stirring occasionally, and more near the end, until nearly uniformly golden-to-dark brown, but not burnt. Set aside.
While onions are cooking, wash chicken livers, and cut double lobes to single for easier handling.
Add more schmaltz to pan as needed, and add the chicken livers over medium heat.
Cook livers on both sides until browned on the outside, and just not pink on the inside. Turn off flame, and leave in pan.
Place sauteed onions and peeled roasted garlic in food processor workbowl with steel blade (garlic may vary from a few cloves to a whole head--how do you feel today?) Add up to about a teaspoon of coarse salt.
Pulse a couple of times, and then let run for about 30 seconds.
Cut other onion in eighths and add to workbowl. Pulse briefly a couple of times, push to bottom with spatula, repeat until coarsely chopped, but not too fine.
Add livers, including all bits, pieces and drippings from the pan. Pulse a few seconds a couple of times, and even out with spatula. Repeat as needed to obtain coarse mixture. Remember: short pulses are the key to avoiding too smooth a result.
Taste, add salt if needed.
Use egg-slicer twice at 90-degree angles to coarsely chop eggs. Add them to the workbowl.
Pulse briefly two or three times, push down with spatula, repeat pulsing.
Pack in containers and refrigerate overnight before serving.