my name in lights

So...I was going to make humble pie. Well actually humble pudding. But I had too many chores and the stuff went out of date today.

So I did what an earlier medieval peasant would have eaten. Because yes this is me in food historian mode.

But first some apologies.

Firstly vegans...this may be of interest but you will struggle to apply it. If it upsets you when I say lamb think artichoke. If I say bacon think facon.  But don't use the recipe...it will be foul.

Secondly for those in search of accuracy ...I use hot sauce and chili to substitute for the shear quantity of black pepper in the original. Black pepper was one of the earliest spices to reach us. It and mustard (proper mustard) and horseradish and others we don't use like arsmart  (makes your arse smart) were used a good deal. This is effectively a devilled dish.

Thirdly the ingredients. ...an apology to the lamb. This is an offal dish. Peasants could get deer offal or beast offal because the Lord let it fall off the carcase (off fall) in fact after a hunt the heart liver and lights (intestines) belonged to the porter.

Also for young folk....when I was a kid braised heart was a regular school dinner. It's why I learnt to cook. To avoid it. Then I grew up.

So here we go. Peasant offal casserole.

 

2 lambs hearts

1/2lb lambs liver

I chopped onion

3 celery sticks

A selection of root vegetables 

3tsp crumbled dried mushrooms.

1tsp dried sage

1tsp dried oregano

1 sprig fresh rosemary

2 bay leaves

2tsp whole grain mustard

1tsp black pepper

3tbs hot sauce

I pt stock

Slice the heart and liver into...well slices. Dip into flour. You need a casserole with a well fitting lid.

Fry the onions till they brown. Seal off the heart and liver. Put everything else in and stir. Pop into an oven at 140c. For 3 hrs.

For those using a cauldron simmer on the side of the fire for 3 hrs. At least.

At the end the heart will be tender and the liver mainly gone. Dress with juice of half a lemon and one thinly sliced chili. Thicken with your choice of agent. I use cornflour as it's quick and easy. A peasant would use bread or a flour and water mix.

souper

Ok so I decided to try my hand at hot and sour soup.

This recipe is a bit of a composite but I found it yummy.

3 dried shiitake

4sq inches kombu

2 stock cubes

6 toasted szechuan peppercorns. Ground fresh.

2.5 pints boiling water 

Simmer 30 mins.

I used chicken stock gel but really should be pork or veal bone stock

Fish the kombu out.

You can choose to slice it thinly but the texture is an acquired taste. 

To stock add

100 ml rice vinegar

3tsp sambal oelek

I desert spoon clear honey

I thin sliced red chilli 

I large clove garlic smooshed

2 inches ginger julienned 

Juice and zest of lemon

That is the stock done. You need to balance the heat sour and sweet yourself of course. I tend to like food that fights back. At this point you thicken the stock with cornflour and water and add the thread eggs. To make these beat an egg thoroughly then stir the very hot soup slowly and add the egg by dribbling it.

To the stock you then add....well whatever you have. Fresh crunchy vegetables. Tofu. Cooked pork. Left over duck. Beansprouts. Noodles or dumplings if you want more of a meal. So you see this is a soup that helps you clean out the fridge.

Anyway give it a go.

ok so I'm not dead

I know it's been a long time. But a lot has happened. 

For a start that bottle of whiskey may have been a mistake. My use of alcohol to sleep got a bit out of control. Well a lot out of control. I became heavily alcohol dependent.

Now on top of that or rather causing that was ongoing lack of any focus in life. No partner. No work. No nothing.

I became, and remain, a shut in. With a typical cptsd mix of entity and depression using alcohol to sleep with no dreams. Eventually after a long time of telling people I wasn't coping I got an urgent visit from MHT. Who tried to get me in to a psychiatric ward. They failed. Next day they visited again to find me trying to hang myself. So they took me to A and E as an alcoholic. I went into the ward to be dried out.

I'd almost finished the taper when I was coming back from the cafe and I had a stroke in the corridor. Right side stopped working. Voice slurred and slow. This being Ipswich Hospital I had to crawl back to the ward. Where they accused me of drinking searched my bag found some old prescription drugs and said I was high. For 3 days I tried to get them to help. I had to threaten to shit the bed to get a commode. 

This treatment stressed me beyond measure. I was eventually bullied into a meltdown. All my meltdowns are suicide attempts. So they sectioned me.

Treat a stroke by sending patent to a different hospital with no medical staff. Nice.

Anyway eventually I am kicked out for not looking mad. Because I'm autistic. Remember I was supposed to be in there anyway.

After a week at home got in to Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton where they said yep that's a stroke.

By the way my teenage daughter had told them all I'd had a stroke as she had seen the adverts.

So that's a snapshot of my life.