So lets talk about meat ...

Yes I'm a meat eater, completely and unashamedly, however I seem to have a philosophy that's somewhat out of favour. Although I am in favour of eating meat, I believe that you should respect the animal you're eating; respect it enough to give it a good life before it dies, respect it enough to use as much of it as possible. I should probably get to the point. My point is this; I eat offal and I think everyone who eats meat should respect their food enough to do the same.

Its not just about respect - offal is not only cheap but delicious! From Liver and Onions to Steak and Kidney pie, some of the great classic dishes use offal to great effect. Besides, i love trying new things, I'm defiantly not squeamish about my food and if you get too precious about eating offal when you quite happily eat steak, I shall just have to quote the great Jeff Jacques at you; lean in real close and whisper "you're eating that animal's muscles, that's what they used to move around when they were alive and now you're eating it". Because if that doesn't bother you then i fail to see why offal would.

So what triggered this little expose of my gastronomical preferences? My new favourite recipe, that's what! I watched the latest episode of River Cottage recently and was inspired to see Hugh fernly-whatisname cooking Deviled Lamb's Heart. Having never cooked heart before, I leapt at the chance to try it when i saw hearts for sale in the local Morrisons. However, I was then thoroughly disappointed to notice the complete absence of a recipe on the website. I assume the series will be followed by some sort of recipe book but I didn't want to wait that long so downloaded the episode, watched him cook it again and then did my own version. Possibly the most surprising recipe so far. (NB; the quantities in this recipe are complete guesswork apart from the heart as I just sloshed things in till they looked right)

Devilled Lamb's Heart

Ingredients
(serves 2 for a starter or 1 for a main course)

• 1 decent size Lamb's heart
• stock vegetables (I generally just use whatever I've got in but your basic guidance is 1 decent sized carrot, half an onion and some celery)
• Stock herbs (again this is a matter of preference but I just gathered some bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, basil and parsley from the garden)
• 3 tbsp cooking sherry
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• a decent splosh of Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 tsp English mustard
• 2 tsp recurrent jelly
• Cayenne Pepper
  
• 3 tbsp Cream

In selecting your heart, you want a nice crimson one with creamy swirls of fat at the top. When you get it home, cut it in half lengthways and wash it to get rid of any clots of blood. I just rinsed it under a running tap until the water ran clear. Then you want to prepare your stock vegetables and put them into a decent sized pan with the herbs, add the heart and just enough water to cover everything (i needed about 1 1/2 pints) add some salt and pepper at this point if you feel the need. Cover the pan and bring to the boil then lower the heat and leave it simmering for about an hour. Go and do something else whilst your heart has a nice warm bath.



Remove the heart from the stock and slice into thin vertical slivers, removing the fat and tube-y bits as you go. Heat a sauté pan with a very small amount of oil until its so hot its almost smoking then add your heart slivers. Fry for a few seconds then add the Sherry. BE VERY CAREFUL AT THIS POINT. There is a very high probability the sherry will catch fire, this is not a problem and is simply the alcohol burning off. When the Sherry is no longer alight add the vinegar, mustard, redcurrant jelly and cayenne pepper. You may notice at this point that I've carefully avoided putting a quantity down for the cayenne and this is because the amount it entirely up to you. Now add the cream and stir to make sure everything is fully combined then reduce - you want to be aiming for a thick sauce that will happily cling to your toast.

Now simply serve on toast, I used some slices of a rather nice home-made malt loaf and served with a leaf salad. Enjoy. I practically licked my plate clean.