An Offally bad press

During war time or times of real poverty causing food scarcity, it was imperative to be an inventive cook ..... either that or starve.

In those times of hardship, nothing was left to waste ... a pigs trotter here, a bag of ox tripe there, a lump of ox liver now and again and people appreciated the value of food and were glad of it.

Whilst we all love to watch celebrity cooks in action on our screens, there are precious few people that are prepared to actually spend any time trying out ingredients and techniques. We have become faddy and lazy in our eating experiences, relying upon supermarkets and fast food and takeaway joints to sustain us.

Today I am very disappointed both in our Western society's abilities to cook and to explore ingredients, but even more strangely ... people tend to decide that they already dislike something without necessarily being prepared to taste it on a single occasion. They may dislike it, but a refusal to taste something simply means that they are denying themselves some wonderful new flavours in the future.

Offal gets an undeservedly bad reputation and what a bad start it get's off to with its generic name - automatically suggesting that it is something 'awful'?

The truth is that Offal comes in many forms :

•     heart, lungs, kidney, sweetbreads, tripe, tails, feet, head and giblets (reffering to birds)

and you will find some very good information and recipes at http://www.offalgood.com/site/what-is-offal/. It is hard to believe that someone will dislike in every form it is available.

I was put off liver in the past having eaten school liver and bacon casseroles with leathery, dry and powdery ox liver, overcooked and unable to be redeemed by any amount of gravy.

Calves liver sliced around 1cm thick and lightly pan-fried in butter with a pink vein running through it with a little twist of salt and pepper is a revelation when compared to those school (and mum's) dinners. Drizzle those buttery liver infused juices over the top and serve alongside a few Jersey Royal potatoes and some chantenay carrots and you have a veritable feast.

Don't ignore Offal ... what do you think has been pureed down to make your pate? 

So please ask your local butcher for some offal and some tips on how to cook it to its best. But if you are one of the unlucky people whose local butcher has had to close due to local supermarket dominance, then I can heartily recommend Donald Russell as a high quality mail order meat, fish & game, and in particular their calves liver.

Food with Passion have ordered from Donald Russell on many occassions in the past and include a very favourable Guinea Fowl Capon Review on the site and found them to be a very reliable supplier, offering a 'satisfaction guaranteed or your money back' guarantee.

So, start giving Offal a good press and leave its 'awful' tag behind.

(oh.... and if you should think that this is just an advert, then I assure you that Food with Passion earns nothing from this article or any sales that Donald Russell makes)

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Great British Menu returns

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Starting at 6.30pm on Monday 17 March 2008 on BBC Two. Find out about the new series.