Is it offal?
It’s a salad – and includes livers and bacon to give it depth and flavour. Leo chowed-down. Then he asked, ‘Are we eating offal?”
I admit to sneaking the odd finely chopped-up mushroom into Leo’s food, but I’ve never done this with chicken livers, (as is possible in a Bolognese sauce), or tried to disguise them as something else. In fact, he’s always enjoyed liver. But I was not surprised by his double-take. Even though livers are familiar – and relatively benign anatomically- they are still undeniably offal. If you are not put off by this fact then try your chicken livers warm in a salad – it’s a good way to enjoy a really tasty, (and cheap), ingredient.
I have included a couple novel ideas in the salad. One is whole pea pods – not steamed and allowed to burst open as shown in many of this summer’s food publications. They are simply boiled and then eaten as for edamame beans.
The other is a core of broccoli stalk, sliced julienne and eaten raw, which I saw being done on the telly. I always try to use the broccoli stalks for either cold or hot dishes: I par boil them and refresh in cold water for a crunchy addition to a salad. I also steam them with the florets and eat as a hot vegetable. It’s good to know that this part of the broccoli can be used. It provides the confidence to buy broccoli heads with thick, long and knobbly stalks without feeling that you are paying over the odds.