Friday, November 2, 2012

Extra iron

I wasn't able to donate at the blood drive yesterday, as my iron levels were too low. This has led to blood tests and prescribed iron tablets, but it wouldn't hurt to add a bit more iron into my diet too. Liver is one of the most iron-rich foods around, so it seemed like a good time to make liver and bacon (p126).


Liver is not something I recall having before (apart from chicken-liver pâté which is quite a different thing). It didn't look very appealing, and it was hard to stop myself from assuming I would dislike it before even having a taste.




The 'lamb's fry' had been roughly sliced at the supermarket butchery, but the recipe specified thin slices, so I did what I could to slice the chunky pieces into thinner bits. Then I heated oil in a pan and quickly browned the liver, before removing it from the pan and adding onion instead.


Once the onion was cooked, I put in a spoonful of flour, cooked that for a minute or so, then gradually stirred in beef stock. This actually made a very tasty gravy, though it didn't take anything like the five minutes indicated to boil and thicken.




While the onions were cooking, I'd put some bacon rashers under the grill. I nearly forgot about them, but luckily I rescued them before they started to burn. As it turned out, the bacon came out perfectly crispy.


I put the liver back in the gravy, let that cook for a few more minutes, and then served it up with the bacon. Not a perfectly balanced plate - no veges - but it was iron I was after tonight. There was a lot on the plate, and I doubted I'd eat it all, but I was sure going to give it a try.




I definitely got a decent dose of iron. Liver must really be iron-rich, because that's all it really tastes of. The flavour is so strong that it totally overwhelmed the gravy and bacon. I didn't particularly mind the flavour at first, but after a few mouthfuls it became so overpowering that I couldn't eat any more, and the aftertaste is not awesome either.


So it looks like liver's not really my thing. I think I'll stick with the iron tablets.

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