not for the faint of heart!

i wake up this morning from twelve hours of sleep
however still knackered

yesterday after a pizza marinara at cross keys in mellieha and after rewatching Hot Fuzz
you know
because of the recent london riots
and because of a minor internet meme claiming that simon pegg's character's transfer from london to the countryside was one of the reasons behind the ineffective policing...

anyway it is 22:30 on a saturday and i go to sleep
calling it a night this early
is partly because of eating the whole pizza
and it's partly what i did before that

in the morning i bought long fins for free diving later that afternoon

that afternoon:
snorkeling for about three hours
half of the time with a friend's harpoon and chasing a big fish
under a big rock - unsuccessfully
wasting my breath and my energy
later catching an octopus
which is not bad for my first time
but i shoot it three times
first time it runs away
second i miss
third time success but the octopus crawls up the harpoon to my hand and scares the shit out of me
i get it to shore...

not bad for my first time
i leave the octopus with my friend and go get that pizza

anyway this morning i eat toast and a red bull for my late 11 am breakfast
this makes me feel kind of ok but still a bit recovering

i digress
it's not the forgone octopus
not the cross keys pizza
not the red bull breakfast
it's the meal i cook for my late 3 o'clock lunch which i want to talk to you about:

heart of lamb

i've recently acquired a new camera
and i am freshly trigger happy
so i've accompanied the following recipe with visual aids

i seasoned the heart with salt and pepper

then sliced it

then golden browned some garlic

then those heart slices too

i briefly fried some pumpkin
and added a cup of nero d'avola or two

then covered

i pestled some parsley, dried chick peas, raw garlic, pepper, and some hard amsterdammer cheese i had in the fridge

when the pumpkin got tender i removed it and dusted it with the previous grind

i simmered the heart
in more wine and covered till it tendered and reduced
the more this is done the softer it gets
the heart of a full grown sheep can remain chewy since it has gone through lots of beats
it would be best to get a young lamb's

and in the end
i added some fresh sage and cooked for another minute

done



as i digest
i listen to some Yelle
i don't usually enjoy listening to contemporary pop music
but i'm a sucker for women singing in french

what i have learned today is that a heart of lamb makes red bull feel like sugar pills

and now i am finally energised