An acquired taste

 I never used to like liver,  I halfheartedly pretended to as a child but I think mum knew. It's a particular taste and I think, as I've got older those adventurous little buds in my mouth have busily started acquiring new tastes. For instance, since I've turned twenty one, I've peculiarly started liking coffee, olives and liver, all of which are things that I previously abhorred. On the other hand, these are all things that go hand in hand with living in Italy. Whether the argument is for nature or nurture I'm still not sure. Anyway, this is a good thing, as liver is cheap, healthy in moderation and I'm more confident that with recognisable body parts rather than mince or salami, that I'm not being palmed off with pony. Still, who knows...

So partially instinctively, having hung about the kitchen at home as a child yawning 'I'm hungry!', I knew how to cook it as mum had;  dredged in flour with onions. This is a classic Venetian thing to do, and hence there was a recipe for it in Katie Caldesi's book. I found it a bit restaurant-ised though, why make things complicated? So I took a pinch of knowledge from each source and made it up. Use butter rather than olive oil to fry the onions, coat the chopped liver in seasoned flour and brown with the onions. I then added a lot of red wine which reduced whilst the liver cooked to make a gorgeously velvety sauce.

Having suceeded with the first recipe, I then decided to be more creative for my next organ-based dinner. This was founded on the same basis but used cubed aubergines too which complemented the liver well and a few chopped tomatoes added at the end, piled high with chopped parsley to garnish. Although delicious, I couldn't finish it all and so today I added lentils to bulk out the meagre leftovers. This made for a great transformation and I could imagine making a spicy version of this in future with cumin and coriander seeds.

In the meantime, I'm building up the courage to buy a whole rabbit (I don't know why a rabbit with a head still attached is any different to a fish with its head on but it makes me more squeamish for some reason). Atleast then I can be sure it's definitely a rabbit and not a horse in disguise.