Bacon & Onions with Liver

This post can also be seen at Highbrow Paleo and Chowstalker!

I worked through some childhood trauma last week; I've had a grassfed beef liver in my freezer for... a year or so. Haunted by memories of "that nasty liver smell," it took awhile to get the nerve to cook the damn thing, but I finally did it. I want to love liver, really I do, but I think I'll have to settle for tolerating it; I pulled every trick out of my sleeve that I could, but I still can't say this was an enjoyable experience. Some of you actually enjoy liver though, so I will share my method.  Meh...

1/2 a liver (mine was a little under 1.5lbs., and I knew I wouldn't eat it all, so I just made half. I'm no scientist, but I'm not down with eating the filtering organs of sick animals; get a good grassfed one, it should still be pretty inexpensive)
1/2 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled, grease reserved
1 large onion
a few TBS of clarified butter
2 TBS arrowroot

1 head cauliflower, chopped into large chunks
1/3 cup broth
a few TBS heavy cream (optional)
a few TBS butter
Salt, pepper, & herbs to taste (I used herbes de provence)

A few hours before cooking time, slice liver into 1/2" slices, and soak in milk or lemon juice; they say this will diminish some of the liver flavor. Slice onion and cook in clarified butter on medium-low heat for about half an hour until the onions get a bit caramelized; add bacon and set aside.

At this point, heat broth in a saucepan over medium high heat, and add cauliflower; steam for about 6 or 7 minutes until you can easily poke with a fork. Once it is tender, add butter, cream and seasonings, and puree (great job for a stick blender if you have one.) While cauliflower is cooking, add bacon to the pan that the onions were cooking in, and heat up to medium-high. Dry off liver slices, and place in a baggie with arrowroot, toss to coat. Once pan is hot, add slices of liver, and cook for about a minute on each side; it will be brown on the outside, and pretty rare on the inside. I was amazed that there was NO SMELL! My mom is a great cook, but we have some, uhh, different ideas about how long to cook things; if you don't cook the hell out of the thing, you may be spare your loved ones from the liver-stank. Serve with plenty of bacon & onions, and choke it down!

Mmm bacon!  Eww liver!  So conflicted...