Curried Chicken Liver Mousse

Whenever I play hooky, I play big.

Tanarra and I skipped out one day and wandered through Nolita, stopping at a rice pudding shop that refused to be discovered again. Emma and I went for fried chicken but instead found ourselves on a sunny patio sipping lemonade and eating crab cake sandwiches before sampling half a dozen cupcakes later.

I blew off a day to eat chicken liver mousse, baguette, and Lillet blanc from my perch at Le Pichet. That, I wanted more of.

I wouldn't call myself on a campaign to make the ideal chicken liver mousse, but this humble mash has variations that beg to be sampled. Take, for instance, the curried chicken liver mousse with kale from Vikram Vij's Elegant and Inspired Indian Cuisine. Loaded with asofetida, fenugreek, cayenne, and kale, this is an unexpectedly hearty and spicy mousse, which we paired with ginger-pickled carrots. Todd ate his banh mi-style, I ate mine on salted crostini.

Make no mistake - if you don't like chicken livers, you still probably won't like this. That chicken liver flavor can't really be hidden, even under a blanket of South Asian spices. But if you're a mousse eater like me, you might appreciate the variation. It's not sweet at all (even though it has brandy) and the asofetida does lend an unmistakable pungency.

Are you a chicken liver mousse fan?

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