LIVER SAVOR

The word ‘savor’ means tasty and savory as the sauce is made of vinegar, olive oil, flour and rosemary that are poured into fried foods to preserve them for some time. They used to do this in the past before they had refrigerators for storage.

You may also ask why today, when there are refrigerators, do we "savor" fried fish, noodles, liver or French fries. It is because Cretan cuisine is inextricably linked to the lifestyle of the islanders, in the way they express themselves, work and have fun.
 Go to a cafe in my village with your friends and order raki. You get the appetizers (meze) and a saucer of liver savor. Then you’ll see them empty the raki carafes one after the other. You want the light caress of the cool wind, you want the hospitality, and you want the energy of the space, the view of the landscape and the pictures of the ordinary people who know how to enjoy their place and these unique moments. It is also the smell of raki that interferes with appetizers and the pungent smell of vinegar in the liver savor, which makes you not want to stop trying it again and again.
At a time, when there was no electricity or refrigerators to store food, they were stored in a metal cage with a screen that had an open door at the front and two shelves inside to store food for a small time period. They called it a "lantern" and hung it either in the yard, on the wall of the house or on the kitchen roof to ventilate the food and protect it from dust, insects and cats. These "lanterns" were also put on savory foods so they could enjoy them all week.
One such appetizer with vinegar and tomato sauce I chose today to enjoy with beef liver, a technique I learned to make with my mother in the village.

Ingredients:
1kg. veal or lamb or pork liver
Flour
4 sprigs of rosemary
150ml vinegar
Salt
Olive oil for frying

Method:
Wash the liver and let it drain. Cut it into small pieces. Flour very well on both sides.
Fry in hot olive oil on both sides (do not let it dry too much because the liver will become hard). Continue frying and remove from the heat at the temperature it has developed. Remove from the pan and put on a plate. Season with salt. (Salt now because liver becomes hard if salted cold.) Repeat the process until all the pieces are fried.
Strain the olive oil left in the pan. Refrigerate and add the sprigs of rosemary. Quench with vinegar and let it evaporate (be careful not to burn, remove the pan from the heat for a short while and gently pour the vinegar over, again, and let it evaporate) add the pieces of liver, allow to boil once and serve. You can spread the cream cheese on a plate and put the pieces of liver on top.

Good luck!!!