Monday 8 February 2016

Muffins and hearts

Some weekends are just 'making' weekends.  Mr C was out on Saturday morning and I had a quiet morning listening to Radio 4 and making banana and chocolate chip muffins.  There is something so wonderful and British and precious about Radio 4.     You could be listening to a play or learning about culture or a very silly comedy.

As I made the muffins  I listened to the Reverend Richard Coles and friends on Saturday Live.  It almost felt as if it could be any time in the last 50 years or so!

Our mixing bowl is an old Mason Cash one we had found in a charity shop a few years back.

The muffins were quite nice in the end, I wasn't sure the banana I used was mushy enough though. 

On Sunday we cooked a wonderful recipe of stuffed lambs hearts.  It was a bit fiddly as you have to make the stuffing (onions, sausage meat, mushrooms, parsley garlic), then a sauce made with tinned tomatoes, red wine, flour and butter, then stuff the hearts, wrap them in bacon and tie them up with string, then cook for about two hours.  It was worth it though, they were lovely! 

Offal never looks pretty, but it makes up for this with the wonderful flavour.  I do find that these days a lot of people are very squeamish about using heart, liver or kidney, many people are even flummoxed by any meat on the bone that isn't vacuum packed and bloodless!  I do think they are missing out though.

6 comments:

  1. I love those bowls, I have 3 different sizes, the big one is a modern one and I have two Mason ones which came from a charity shop, I love using them. The only offal I eat is liver, I can't stand the smell of kidneys, never tried heart x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We've got two sizes of Mason cash and I often have my eye on others! :)

      Delete
  2. I saw a Masons mixing bowl in the window of a Charity shop for £6 I popped to the cash machine to get some money and when I went back it had gone :-(
    I have to admit to being squeamish with offal but quite like to have liver and onions at a local eatery, they do OAP meals for £4.95 and its a huge portion. x

    ReplyDelete
  3. My father in law used to like lambs heart, I must admit I've never tried it x

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love using 'classic' bowls and kitchen equipment. Cooking is so timeless, I feel connected to the past when cooking with them too. Does heart taste offally? I must be brave and experiment...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love that feeling too Jane. :) Heart doesn't have a strong taste like liver or kidney, it is more subtle and less offally. The texture is different to normal meat really. The recipes often say to cut off excess fat, but actually you can cut too much off and make it too lean.

      Delete