Kidney Omelette with Sweet Potato and Broccoli

I haven't updated this thing in two months. Honestly, it feels much longer. I feel like I've done a lot of paleo foodie stuff to say, but I probably won't even remember a quarter of it. Let's see... I've pissed myself off for not going to the raw milk farm when we went to New Zealand, one of the main reasons I went, I've done heaps more research about why we shouldn't diet (read: MATT STONE ROCKS MY SOCKS), I've bought two of the latest health bundles, I've given up listening to every.single.annoying. webcast webinnaire videos where people talk really slowly because it clogs my inbox, and I'm down to one drawer of bananas left in the freezer. Unfortunately, it's still pretty full, so I'm wishing for a cow for Christmas.

Some more, actually somewhat exciting things that have happened:

- My birthday! I woke up to the best birthday present - my first acknowledgement of a somewhat ok metabolism:

I also made a coconut oil pie and a watermelon cake to celebrate (oh, and an organic roast chicken) and I'll post a recipe for that later. Some day. One day.

- I bought my first pair of lululemon yoga pants. I feel like my life is complete. I never had a pair of proper yoga pants for the whole year or so that I actually trekked it out to the yoga place to die for an hour on Saturdays.

- I've fully cooked sweet potato vermicelli, and it's alright. It's just like thick rice vermicelli. Awesome.

- My ferments have actually worked! I lost hope in my many, many strawberry kvasses so I gave up, read about fermenting for a bit, and then stuck some cabbage and a cucumber or two in jars. And a bunch of asparagus in the St Dalfour's jam jars I've been wanting to ferment asparagus in ever since I saw them. And guess what?

THEY WORKED!! :D DELICIOUS BACTERIA FOR EVERYONE!!

Ahem. Moving on.

- I'm doing the HSC. So, in layman's terms, I have the right to stress every second of the day for the next 365 days, as of about last week (the end of the exams). And thus, I have woken at 4am the past few mornings, despite my copious banana eating. Humph.

- I had proper 'junk' food yesterday. I went to my friend's party (just a few movies with just a few friends) and they ordered pizza for dinner and honestly, it looked gross anyway so I looked like an anorexic while I said that I'd had dinner before I came (true story though). But the birthday cake came out and it was a passionfruit cheesecake and I was like 'you know what? I've already had butter twice today and I don't want to look like a restrictive twat who refused to eat normal food and Matt Stone says that junk food is good for you so...' And I grabbed the cheesecake slice that had been one of the first ones cut (my friend was starting to get them all messy). And so I took my cute little forkie and dug into the sweet cream cheese. And boy did it taste sweet. Other people said it was remarkably sweet as well, so it wasn't just me. And I started to realise what 'full' meant. It opened my eyes to feeling my stomach instead of feeling how much is left on the plate. And so I didn't want to finish the cheesy bit; I didn't want any more. And so my friend who eats everything, ate the rest :)

- I've fallen in love with awful offal. I hazarded taking the kidneys out of the freezer, and I soaked them for 24 hours before frying the teeny chopped pieces in a large amount of butter. Delish!

Which brought me the inspiration for this recipe :)

Kidney Omelette with Sweet Potato and Broccoli

2 lamb's kidneys, preferably from lambs who had previously frolicked in meadows

2 eggs, preferably from chickens who had dug up their own wormies for tea

about ten of those smaller florettes of broccoli that are at the top of the head of broccoli

a tennis ball size chunk of sweet potato (I never know how much sweet potato to eat)

as much butter as your inner dairy gods will accept as sacrifice

Half a grove of olive oil, to serve (or just a drizzle, to taste)

Freeze the kidneys, then take them out of the freezer for half an hour, slice lengthways, cut out the white bits and chop up the meaty bits into teeny chunks. Pop into a mug with water and a splash of apple cider vinegar or other vinegar, cover with cling wrap, and put it in the fridge overnight. Strain, then soak in plain water for another 4-6 hours (or until dinner time, if that's when you're having them). Strain and put them in paper towel to dry.

Bring a pot of water to a boil, chop up the veggies quite small, and add them to the pot. Cook them up until al dente/not overcooked.

Put half of your butter/fat in a fry pan, cook on medium so the fat sizzles and once the milk solids stop bubbling so much, add the kidneys, don't touch then for thirty seconds, then do the really cool chef flick-of-the-wrist move to toss the kidneys, leave them for ten seconds, repeat another two or three times, and then take them out of the pan quick smart.

Beat the eggs in a small bowl. Add them to the fry pan that was just cooking kidneys, in the rest of the butter if needed. Cook it low and slow - if it's quite thick, your pan is too small. It needs to be quite thin. Keep it frying on low until all the egg is cooked.

Strain the veggies and dry them. Mix the kidneys in with them, and pour the mixture onto one side of the omelette. Fold the rest of the omelette on top like a blanket.

Somehow transfer the omelette to a plate and drown in olive oil (or drizzle, or neither if olives aren't your thing).

Big Batches Save Time

Don't even ask why I haven't blogged.

School is such a nuisance, isn't it?

For my 'week' at dad's, I decided to make a big batch of stuff I can warm up in the oven during prelims time (less than two months! Eek!) so I made two pots of broth (fattiest and most gelatinous I've made yet), a few jars of applesauce and for lunch I had some lambs kidneys. If you don't count marrow and bones in any form as offal, this would have to be my favourite! Kinda because it's less bad than the others, so to speak. In my opinion, it looks like a squished sausage and tastes like farm. Just that essence of 'farm'. They mustn't have been too caged up then! My applesauce turned out a depressing faint orangy-pinkish-grey colour (it tasted fine) so I added a little boiled beetroot and that livened it right up. And my broth was mostly beef bones with two little lamby bones. And if I hold it upside down, it doesn't move! Loving my big batches of good food :)

I have recipes I played with ages ago that I haven't put up yet, so I will get to doing that some day or another.

Also, as I think of it, being winter here in Australia, I'm going to be making so many slow cooked meals for the times when I have no time (ie prelims). Be prepared for some awesome slow-but-fast recipes coming soon :)

One more thing. Yesterday we were shopping and I just randomly thought out of the blue to convince dad to get me the anchovy-smelling cod liver oil capsules. So in a few days I'll be trying them out - swallowed, mixed into stuff, on my eczema - and I'll let you guys know about it.

Mmm... Tasty

To kick off this entry, here's the clip I'm about to tell you about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZuV1LJxtJk
Skip to 1.45 for the important bit by the way. I was watching Disney (forcibly by James) and this scene came up. I cracked up; this Jerry guy is me! It was hilarious. Watch the video to find out what I'm talking about! (PS I don't mean that I saw my grandmother in a bikini one day).

On a slightly different note, I bought some lamb's tongue at the butcher a few days ago because it was the cheapest cut of meat (no surprises there). I had a quick look up at how to cook it and even though I only found beef tongue, it seemed pretty simple: poach for a while, peel the skin, slice thin, panfry if wanted. There was speculation over whether to let it cool or not before peeling, so I did half half.

I popped the tongues (five of them) in a pot with some rosemary, oregano and chilli...