Liver & Bacon with a twist!

What's Cooking?

With half term fast approaching I am working hard to stock the freezer with all the family favourites. Today's recipe is a real "marmite" one; you either love it or hate it! It is very divisive in my house, but if you are a fan, this is a a real simple recipe which is delicious when using quality ingredients.

Top Tip:

Here on the farm we have the very best of home grown, but appreciating that not everyone has that I can recommend splashing out on the bacon in particular, the supermarket cheap watery packs are just hopeless to cook with!

Ingredients

Quantities are very forgiving so go with what you think for the number you are feeding

Liver in chunks or slices (most animal liver is fine, lamb and chicken are popular) and any other offal you like: kidney, tongue, heart all work well

Onions finely sliced

Mushrooms finely sliced

Good quality back bacon, diced

Garlic cloves finely chopped

Plain white flour

Beef or chicken stock cube(s)

Olive oil

My twist: Good Ale, I like a bottle of Farmer Nick's best Cornish Bitter!

Lightly boiled and chopped carrots or other veg (optional, can just serve with the meal separately)

Potatoes for mashing.

Method

1. Saute the onions and Mushrooms in  2 tablespoons of olive oil.
    
2. Remove with a slotted spoon, add the diced bacon and fry with the chopped garlic until crispy and the juices are running,  then add the sliced liver, heart, tongue, kidney or other offal and quickly fry on a high heat to seal for 5 minutes.
    
3. Reduce the heat sprinkle in a couple of tablespoons of flour and stir for 1 minute. It will begin to stick to the pan, at this point gradually add the ale, stock cube and season with black pepper and a pinch of salt. Stir to a rich smooth consistency, add the onion, mushroom and any other veg. back in and transfer to a casserole dish. 
    
4. Peel and boil the potatoes, drain well then mash with a little milk, butter and salt.
    
5. Spread the mash over the casserole and cook in the oven on a medium heat at about 160degrees - for  approximately an hour.

Tip

You can cook for shorter at a higher temperature or even leave it on the hob and serve the potato separately, but I always think meat is more tender and tasty cooked longer and slower in the oven. I then freeze my 2 and 4 potion dishes ready for our guests to simply refrost and reheat after a busy day on the farm or at the beach. It is an easy one to make in batches, so worth doing one for the freezer and one for dinner.