Liver with Bacon and Onions

We bought a deep fat fryer not very long ago. Actually, it's my mum's but she's only used it once. I've never really been brave enough to deal with hot fat in large quantities so I mostly leave the actual dangerous frying to Al. He worked in a Chip shop when he was 14 (I'm sure there are some ethical/health and safety issues there but he survived) and is quite the pro.

I used to be a vegetarian. I think I've mentioned it in passing before but it seems like a long time ago now. I will now try pretty much any meat you put in front of me, just so I know what it's like. As a kid, I hated liver. My mum used to cook it sometimes and we'd have to eat it... it has such a strange texture and flavour, it's quite unlike anything else really. In my adulthood (stop laughing!) I've found that I actually really like it. I love the weird texture and the iron-y flavour. I've learnt that it goes amazingly well with onions and bacon in a rich gravy. These combine perfectly with potatoes (usually mashed) and peas.

This time, we deep fried some cooked new potatoes to go with the liver and bacon and they were delicious. Nice and crispy on the outside to completment the meltingly delicious liver and the thick gravy. As my mum is the one that cooks liver, I thought it was time I tried to make it myself. It's really easy!

Ingredients
1 large onion
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 pack of lambs liver
2-4 tbsp plain flour
Salt and pepper
300ml lamb stock
4 rashers of bacon

Method
Slice the onion and fry in half of the oil until lightly browned.
Rinse the liver and pat dry. Season the flour and spread onto a plate, coat each slice of liver with the flour.
Stir the leftover flour into the onions and cook gently for a minute or so, stirring constantly. Add the stock and bring to boil, reduce the heat and leave to simmer.
Fry the bacon in the rest of the oil and remove from the pan when cooked. Add the liver to the pan and fry over a moderate heat for a couple of minutes each side, or until lightly browned.
Return the bacon to the pan, add the sauce and stir to make sure all the residue of the frying bacon and liver is incorporated well. Simmer for 3-4 minutes until the liver is cooked.
Serve with mashed (or in this case fried) potatoes and peas.

We used tinned potatoes (shocking, I know) that were drained and dried thoroughly. We then fried them in oil at 170C until crispy and delicious. Obviously, these would be even better with fresh potatoes but we just used what we had.