I'm hankering after a nice lamb's heart.

Many moons ago I was totally involved with them, used them in so many ways. Mostly stuffed. Nowadays I'm lucky if I see a couple lying lifeless on the butcher's slab in Sainsburys.
I know this hunger for offal won't die away so I might pop along to the ancient town of Rochford to see if the butcher therein has any.

Talking of hearts. I'm all.

Baking and cooking and fussing and soothing .............and that's just for the postman who today delivered 12 lavender plants. They were boxed and on the front of the box a heartbreaking note. "Fragile Live Plants Open Immediately"
Big Sigh.
Ripped open the top and there they were 12 plugs, young, in the dark and unaware of their fate.
Which will be............. to be potted on in plastic containers then, after suitable growth occurs, be transplanted into their final resting place. Bless.
Probably by the front door.

By the way I've survived today on: jammy bread, porridge and a bowl of apple cake and evaporated milk. Laziness or Love?


I digress.
Hearts.
To look deep into the still heart of a lamb is a shocking dismal affair, it's not so much the lack of a beat, it's the purple tubes.
Before any stuffing takes place the aforementioned tubes need to be cut out. Snipped if you're squeamish. I have no qualms about either dissecting organs or gutting fish. Animals were made for it:)
And so to the cooking of a major organ.
First wash it well then either make yourself a fine homemade stuffing or buy a box of Paxo.
In my past I've made a stunning onion stuffing but also played it safe by filling the small cavity with some good parsley lemon and thyme via Tesco's.

The current favourite for the heart filler is a mix of cooked rice, bacon, parsley and ubiquitous onion. I will then skewer them with a few cocktail sticks. Don't want the kapok spewing all over into me rich sauce now do I? Which is made of, hold on to your hats.....Condensed tomato soup and redcurrant jelly, seasoning to jolt.
Then when all is secure, bake for a good while till hearts go tender and blood thickens the sauce delightfully.
What to serve with them? Mash. To soak up the juice.

By the way I've never tried Tripe. Hate it visually so not a good start:)



Tonight I'm cooking a more expensive piece of animal flesh.
Rump and chips.
Enough to make my working heart skip a beat. Lol!

By the way what do human hearts have to do with the most powerful of emotions, love. The hearts I've seen, mostly on the telly, are glutinous, rubbery, ugly shiny brick-red affairs which, to my mind at least, have nothing to do with the greatest feeling of all...
You know the feeling, the one....the one which makes your heart Stop!
The one which makes you sing even though you can't.
The one which enlivens then stupefies, emboldens then makes you go all red, makes you courteous, childlike, wild and tame.
Love is surely made alive, not by a sticky but essential organ, but by the Grand Master of the Universe. Our Mind.
It's there, in there, that the intellectual, emotional and spiritual action takes place, the heart just pumps along in perfect harmony.
Am I naiive?

Don't know when I'll do the hearts but it'll be sooner than you think.

By the way I'm in engulfed in a creative rainbow at the mo so watch out for some weird and lovely posts!