Chicken livers with raisins and pinenuts in dessert wine

Just a very quick post to tell you about an accidentally yummy supper.

I'm a massive chicken liver fan - they are super-cheap and delicious - and, as I hadn't had a chance to go food-shopping recently, I defrosted a pack last night, thinking that I would decide what to do with them while I was at work. But Christmas has well and truly arrived at the shop and we were so busy that I had no time to think about dinner until I was on the tube on my way back home tonight. Hence the recipe below is actually barely a recipe! But despite the minimum of thought and preparation it was really delicious. We'll definitely be having it again.

Chicken livers with raisins and pinenuts in dessert wine 
Pack of chicken livers
Handful of raisins or sultanas
Handful pinenuts
Slosh of dessert wine (I used some leftover Tokaij but you could use anything - Vin Santo, even sherry)
Stock cube
Some good bread, rubbed with a garlic clove and a little olive oil
Green salad to serve

Get your griddle pan on the heat. Pour a little boiling water over your raisins. Crumble a stock cube over the soaking raisins, stir and set to one side.

Then trim the chicken livers of any weird-looking or green-ish bits. Melt a little butter in a frying pan with a glug of olive oil. Throw in the livers and brown them on a high heat for a couple of minutes. Then slosh in your wine - allow it to bubble up and deglaze the pan a little and then add in your raisins and stock and reduce for a couple of minutes.

Slice the bread thickly, rub with a garlic clove and drizzle with olive oil. Griddle the bread on both sides. When the chicken liver sauce is a little thicker, add in the pinenuts then pour the livers and a big spoonful of the raisin and pinenut sauce onto the toasted bread. Serve with a green salad.

Incidentally I made a salad dressing for our green leaves with a glug of olive oil, a splash of white wine vinegar, a teaspoon of creme fraiche and about the same of dijon mustard. It made a nice sharp contrast to the rich, sweet chicken livers. Just so you know!