There's nothing that says "Jewish Holiday!" to me more than a big bowl of chopped liver. While not particularly traditional to Hanukkah, it frequently makes an appearance at my family celebrations. My mom still talks about the version that her Auntie Tunkel used to make, in an old wooden chopping bowl with a red-handled chopper. Sadly, Auntie died in 1957 and no one wrote the recipe down while she was alive so I'll never know how hers tasted.
However, I have filled my own need for chopped liver with a recipe I found in the Washington Post in March of 2004. They were doing a series of recipes for Passover and printed Aron Groer's Chopped Liver. I don't remember who Aron Groer was, but he makes some good chopped liver. It isn't exactly like Auntie's, she used schmaltz (chicken fat) and raw onions, but it makes for some fine eating. Aron Groer's Chopped Liver
1 pound chicken livers
2 tablespoons peanut or canola oil
1 pound yellow onions, cut into a 1/2 inch dice
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 hardboiled and peeled eggs
Wash and clean the livers. Heat a skillet over medium and pour in the oil. Add the onions, cover and cook them, stirring occasionally, until they are soft and golden. This takes about ten minutes.
Add the whole livers to the skillet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to medium low, cover and simmer gently until just cooked through (they should still be juicy). This will take about 15 minutes. When they are finished, remove the pan from the heat.
Using tongs or a slotted spoon, transfer the livers into a food mill or meat grinder (leave the onions in the skillet) and grind into a bowl while still warm (if you want to be like my Auntie, you can do this with an Ulu or curved chopping blade, but it's much harder on the arms). You can use a food processor, but be careful not to process them too much or you won't have any chunks left. Uneven texture is one of the charms of chopped liver.
Take the bowl of ground liver and transfer the cooked onions into the bowl (leave the juices behind). Stir to combine. If the mixture looks too dry, add a little bit of the juice from the pan until you achieve your desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Coarsely chopped two the eggs and stir them into the chopped liver. Aron's recipe then instructs you to garnish the mixture with thin slices of egg white and grated egg yolk. I find this to be far too much effort and I after all that work I hate to get my grater dirty, so I always skip it. I just finish it by placing a sheet of plastic wrap down over the chopped liver and refrigerating for at least two hours.
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