Well, calling them "meats" might be taking liberties, I'm not sure where offal falls into the meat categorising system, somewhere near the bottom, no doubt. But it was nourishing, which is the important thing because it kept out grandparents alive. And without that we wouldnt be here to enjoy the shit out my hilarious blog, so good on them for that.
OK, so just to update you, in case you don't follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram or aren't one of my real life friends, I have moved to Perth. It's not terrible but I don't love it. I genuinely miss Melbourne's abundance of amazing food. And as such, I have a plan in motion that will start to take effect later in the year that I will tell you about later in the year as well.
IN the next couple of months I have some ridiculous stuff happening, including my new job on a TV series called Surfing The Menu. I'm literally driving the cast, crew and equipment around the entire country for about 9 weeks and it is extremely exciting for someone like me to be involved in. You know, with the food and everything. And the touring and the driving and all that. It's basically my dream job. So that's us caught up, what have you been doing? Look, no time for that now, I'll just tell you about my dinner.
So as I was saying before I so rudely interrupted myself for what was actually quite a riveting catch-up, my grandparents were depression people. Like with everyone else during that particular period of time they made do. That meant fixing and going without and eating things like offal, which as it turns out, they would acquire a taste for and continue to eat long after the world got back in the black. Now, offal is a pretty broad term that covers a lot of disgusting stuff and I am going to cover a few things from the pile including Kidneys and today's edition and my personal favourite; Lamb's Fry. Otherwise known as Liver.
The name is a bit contentious, sure. But you have to understand that our parents lied to us heaps when we were growing up and most of it was for a good reason. I mean, no kid would have put Tripe in their mouth unless it was called something as creative as "Angel Meat", would they? So I get it. The Easter Bunny, Santa and Jesus things, I still don't quite get but when I do have kids I have a feeling it will all make sense. Maybe not the Jesus thing.
SO, Lamb's Fry. Delicious, nutritious, rich and irony. Iron-y, meaning full of Iron, not Ironic like a song about Irony that contains no examples of irony. It's an acquired taste and I understand that its not for everyone. Although I do think that The Fonz did the reputation of Liver absolutely no favours and that it is worth another look if you have bad memories of it as a kid. The bad memories of kids often permeate adulthood unfairly as I am certain that a lot of our parents were not great cooks. I myself used to think that Pork Chops were a dry, terrible waste of stomach space only to realise in adulthood that my Dad always completely over-cooked them to the point they were almost inedible.
So I think you should give Offal a chance and Lamb's Fry is a great entry point into The Magical World of Organs as it's cheap, quick and easy to prepare and simple to cook. It's rich, has a pleasant texture and goes with mashed potatoes, gravy and bacon. It doesn't get much better than that. BUT it is definitely an acquired taste, so if you don't like it, I get it. All I'm asking is that you keep an open mind and give it a go.
I bought a Lamb's Fry from Coles for $3.89 which provided about 700gm of liver; enough for 5 decent sized portions AND some leftover for the dog. The bacon I bought cost more than that and I got the fattiest bacon I could, which I suggest you do too, as after you render the fat from the bacon, you will fry the Lamb's Fry in it.
Easy as you like, put the Liver into a bowl of salted water and leave for a few hours at least. It just helps to seep the remaining blood out of the liver which makes it less rich/more palatable. Drain off the water and pat the liver dry with paper towels and then slice the liver into strips or pieces roughly the thickness of chicken nuggets. Put the liver, about half a cup of flour and a generous amount of salt and pepper in a plastic bag (one with no holes in the bottom), hold the bag closed tightly and shake it until the liver bits are each coated in seasoned flour. Easy.
Now cut some fatty bacon into strips and fry at a medium heat in a frypan until the bacon starts to go brown and a lot of the fat is left in the pan. Remove the bacon and put ni the oven on a plate to keep warm.
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| Magical Bacon |
Take the bits of Lamb's Fry, shake off the excess flour and lay in the pan in the juicy delicious bacon fat and fry on all sides until brown. This should only take a minute or so on each side. As they cook, take them out and put them on the plate in the warm oven with the bacon. If you cook them too long, it will taste quite bitter and be firmer. You want a consistency that isn't tough to chew through.
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| Shake off the excess flour |
Cook up some vegies to go with it, steamed/boiled/mashed potatoes, carrots, whatever you like that goes well with gravy. Now chuck some butter in with the pan leavin's, which should be some crusty brown fried flour bits, and cook up some sliced onions, adding some hot water and a sprinkling of flour and a stock cube and maybe some herbs and scrape up all of the bits in the frypan to make yourself some delicious bacony fried up onion gravy. Divvy up the Lambs Fry, bacon, vegetables and onion gravy and there you have a delicious Depression-era delight, just like Gram and Gramps.
And then, in the next few days, while your blood is chock full of iron, go and give blood, good on you.
