I have mentioned previously Paulo, pig breeder extraordinaire, from whom I buy my porco preto and boar. Well, this year Paulo is taking a break from pig breeding (much to my chagrin and, no doubt, to the considerable chagrin of his prize stud pig and possibly the sows as well) and has turned his formidable skills to the production of geese, turkeys and guinea fowl.
Anyway, Paulo rang me last weekend to ask if I was interested in an early turkey and some guinea fowl for the freezer – I already have a goose reserved for Christmas, his immediate problem being that he has a fox in the vicinity which has already taken a couple of turkeys and half a dozen fowl, not to mention several of his bantams, and which wasn’t paying the going rate. The geese are already quite large and very, very aggressive and Senhor Raposo won’t go near them. Now we all know that anything coming feet first off Paulo’s farm is guaranteed to be free-range, chemical-free, heavy, meaty, tender and extremely tasty, so how could I refuse? Anyway, Paulo ‘did’ one of the two remaining turkeys (the other one is for him) and, not being able to hang it normally because of the heat, put it in his fridge instead with the arrangement I would collect it today.
This morning dawned hot, muggy and overcast – 30º in the shade and leaving the cats in their customary summer Sunday morning mode
I loped off to Paulo’s place to collect said birds. The good thing about buying a beast from Paulo is that you don’t just buy a joint of meat, you get all the ‘offaly’ good bits as well if you want them, which I do. Last year, for example, I made paté using the heart and liver of one porker I bought and also made brawn from the head and tail meat
much to the disgust of Tigerbrite and Catrina, but it was absolutely delicious. This time Paulo dropped the hint that the turkey liver would be even better than foie gras and, as usual, he wasn’t wrong.
On returning to The Cave, I dropped the plucked and muslin-wrapped birds and the rest of their plumbing into the freezer and headed for the kitchen with jowls a-droolin’. Whilst a slice of thickly crusted pão caseiro (a circular Portuguese country loaf) was grilling, I gently sautéed in butter a sweet white onion with a little garlic and then added the turkey liver to cook through. At the same time I scrambled four guinea fowl eggs that Paulo had donated to the cause and sat down on the terrace to a late brunch – scrambled egg over onions and garlic on toast with liver on the side.
It was one of the best meals I have eaten anywhere – the liver was so tender it melted in the mouth and the guinea fowl scramblers were the ‘eggiest’ I have ever tasted – so much so that half way through i just had to stop and take a photograph.
Happy Sunday.
OZ
Boadicea's Chariot 
You live like a king OZ. Not too keen on brawn, but I do like fried livers and kidneys.
Toc – You would have enjoyed this brawn, trust me. There were a couple of trotters hidden under the head pieces which provided the natural gelatine to help the brawn set.
I’ve never had turkey livers before and they are absolutelybloodyfantastic. If you are ever offered any fresh, free-range ones act very cool when negotiating, but bite the guy’s arm off.
OZ
Nice one OZ. Feeling extremely peckish as a result. Off to the local chipper for that deep-fried Mars Bar supper which fills the void in a way that no other food can.
In truth, our chippers don’t actually provide such fare for most of the year but the Embran Fringe Festival is now in town and Signor Alonzi assures me that they will sell bucket loads of DFMB’s to Southrons anxious to indulge their prejudices about our diet in the next three weeks. It’s a bit like the Arabs and the sheep’s eyes for me – I’m still sure that one has to be a major wind up.
Aye weel, Mr Mackie – I have to say that a DFMB would never sully my plate, let alone my palate any more than would a bucket of flame-grilled McSomethings. Anyway, you can’t ‘flame grill’ anything without ending up with a carbon crust covering raw meat-ish product, as any fule kno.
However, I understand you have something in the land of heather and shortbread tins called ‘Aggis, wot I am reliably informed is made of all sorts of ‘interesting’ bits of hoofy, meaty things and is so good that someone even wrote a pome about it.
OZ
Good morning OZ. I wish I could say that my taste buds have been activated, but oooh dear, they haven’t. They say you can eat anything if you are hungry enough, I’d have to be at starvation level to eat offal, because it’s…….orrffal. I did see DFMB being cooked in a fish and chip shop in Scotland on TV once…I wouldn’t eat those either. My mother use to cook pigs trotters, I tried them, it took me weeks to get my lips apart, good grief, are they sticky or what? Bloody horrible. Are you saying even the cats won’t eat it that food? 🙂
Just a thought OZ, with your love of these foods, and indeed a lot of people who eat these foods, have you ever eaten cat meat? if not, would you eat cat meat?
Lovely pics you’ve placed here though.
Evenin’ Val – Don’t knock it ’till you’ve tried it. The turkey liver was tastier and more tender than a fillet steak. I had a rummage in one of the freezers this morning and found a pig liver to defrost for lunch. Dusted in seasoned flour and fried in butter to within a gnat’s crotchet of being cooked through, it went very well with the steamed carrots and a simple Italian white wine sauce I made.
Have I eaten the cats’ meat? No. Would I eat a cat? Why not? In some countries they leave the feet on a skinned rabbit to prove it isn’t cat, so there can’t be that much difference. In my time I’ve eaten all manner of things from fruit bats, snakes, squirrels, crocodile and dik-dik to horse and water buffalo, so a haunch of lightly grilled moggy would be no problem.
OZ
Evening OZ, I feel a bit sick now darling 🙂
I am just about to eat my supper, I have olives, in a chilli sauce, cottage cheese, some tomatoes & onions that I marinated in olive oil and all sorts of seasoning, some cold sausages left over from yesterday, crusty bread with butter on, and a glass of Merlot, how does that sound?
See you tomorrow, I haven’t read the papers yet.
Val – Sounds delicious. I can do ‘normal’ too, you know.
Enjoy!
🙂
OZ
Yum, Oz, it sounds delicious. I’m not sure about the cat option though. I do eat rabbit and I think it is scrummy. I don’t have a problem with pigs heads and etc, but I cannot abide fish with heads and tails attached; I fillet whitebait!