L is for……………………….

Liver!
OK, how many of you thought I was going to write something romantic?

Bet like me you hated liver at school, that horrible tough greyish green (or greenish grey) leather they used to dish up once a week.
Mum always coated it in flour and fried it, then made onion gravy out of the juices, and it was totally different. I didn’t mind that, and besides, Mum said it was good for us.

My first husband ordered liver and onions when we were out in a posh restaurant.

He said he liked liver and it was something I never cooked, so as it was a special occasion (probably his birthday) and it was on the menu, he was going to have it instead of his usual steak.

I learned to cook liver after that, and my best results were usually in a casserole with mushrooms, bacon, and later sausages so that the kids in the family (1981-89) got the benefit of the gravy even though they didn’t like the main ingredient.

Fast forward to when I met Hubby.
We’d been going out about a month when he offered to cook me dinner.
We both liked liver and bacon, so that was what he cooked, together with mash and my other favourite, cabbage. One of the things he liked about me was I was a cheap date, which was just as well as we were both broke.
I confess I cleared the plate and asked for seconds, it was so delicious. I was on a low calorie diet, but that heavenly smell meeting my nostrils coming up the stairs threw all good intentions out of the window and into the next county!

Throughout our marriage, liver and bacon was a regular meal as it was cheap, filling and full of iron.
I always used to buy pigs liver as not only was it usually the least expensive, but I found ox liver too tough and lambs liver too rich, though recently I now prefer lambs because I don’t need to buy so much of it.

Unfortunately in later years Hubby has had to watch his intake of Vitamin K due to medication, and liver is high on the list for avoidance so it’s a treat for us now.
Also, thanks to cookery programmes, offal like this has gone up in price being of designer popularity (corned beef has almost tripled in price since corned beef hash was featured on TV).

You will find liver on the menu in many classy establishments, though you probably wouldn’t recognise it on the plate by the time the cordon bleu experts have played with it, marinated it, teased it into shape and smothered it.

Liver, a gourmet dish. Who would have thought it?