Creamy Spicy Chicken Livers with Homemade Pasta

Laughter: The best medicine and the shortest distance between two people.

This week’s challenge had me running around to find ingredients (no laughing here), failing to get recipes to work (still no laughter), but it did draw me into a community of other bloggers, all facing the same challenge.

All of a sudden, with tears of laughter running down my cheeks, I realised why I am in this competition – to have fun and get to know people who have the same passions and frustrations I do, so we can laugh about them.

When you’re told to use cayenne pepper and cinnamon in the same dish and, 'Just for fun, let’s crank it up and see what you can do with white chocolate using those two spices, too,' I saw some ask if the judges were on crack!!!

You see, this is all about fun. We love the fame of votes, but most of us count each one separately, not in batches of ten. So just know how special you voters are and how much work (and laughter) happens on the other side of the photo!

This is my weekly submission to Freshly Blogged competition,

if you would like to vote for this recipe -

Click HERE

For the creamy chicken livers:
15ml oil for frying
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp Robertsons cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp Robertsons cinnamon
Salt to taste
250g fresh chicken livers, cut into bite-sized pieces
50ml brandy
50ml water
60ml cream
Handful of fresh chopped Italian leaf parsley

For the homemade pasta:
200g cake flour
2 extra-large egg
Lots of flour for dusting

For the ganache truffle filling:
80g white chocolate
1/3 cup of cream
1 tsp cinnamon

For the chocolate truffles:
70g dark chocolate plus 30g for dipping after
1/3 cup of cream
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

For the creamy chicken livers:
Fry onions, garlic and spices in oil until just soft. Add chicken livers and fry for 1 minute. Deglaze the pan with brandy; stir in the water and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add cream and cook for a further 2-3 minutes, until reduced slightly. Stir in parsley and turn off the heat.

For the homemade pasta:
Chef's note:
I use my food processor to start the mixing, but it can be done by hand, too.
Place flour in the processor and start the machine running. Add egg and allow it to run until mixture forms a ball.
Dust your work surface well and take the dough and knead for about 5 minutes. (You must end up with a smooth elastic dough that is not sticky. You might need to knead in extra flour to get the right texture.)
Leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes, while you set up your pasta machine.
Cut the dough in 100g balls and start to work through the pasta machine settings. Starting with the biggest first, work all the way down to the thinnest roller. Using the cutter on the pasta machine, cut to the required thickness - I like tagliatelle.

To cook your pasta:
Take a large saucepan and fill 1/2 way up with water. Add a generous amount of salt.
Once the water is boiling, add pasta and cook for about 4-5 minutes until al-dente.

For the chocolate truffles:

White chocolate ganache filling:
Melt ingredients together over a double boiler and chill overnight.

Dark chocolate truffles:
Melt ingredients together in a double boiler and chill overnight.
Assemble truffles:
Melt the remainder of the 100g bar of dark chocolate over a double boiler. Form balls with a teaspoon from the dark chocolate, make a dent in the middle and spoon in some white chocolate filling and close truffle up. Dip 2 of the truffles in the melted chocolate to coat and roll the other 2 in icing sugar. Garnish with cayenne pepper.