The teenager folded her arms in a temper because she hadn’t won the prize of the day. I had trouble keeping a straight face. I scolded her gently: “You must be happy for your friend that she won the prize.” “I’m not,” she answered. “She’s always winning, it’s not fair.” These two girls are great buddies and it was the first time I’d raffled anything in my home economics class.

Susie was green with envy. Again I encouraged: “Ah Susie, you don’t mean that. Be nice to your friend.” “No I won’t. My mum needs liver. I want to take it home to her.”

Meanwhile, the winner Mary wrapped her arms around the lunchbox, delighted with her loot. The other four looked on, also disappointed. They had their eyes on me to see what I might do.

When a teenager is having a stubborn, obnoxious moment I’ve learned that it’s best to ignore the tantrum and return to discuss what has happened when all parties have calmed down.

It’s good advice for any argument. Back to the moment, we might as well have been at one of Neven Maguire’s cookery demonstrations at the Ploughing when the dishes are raffled, such was the interest of my students. The prize was a small portion of stuffed lamb’s heart and liver – the remains of a cookery class.

Healthy hearts

Some weeks ago in school we decided to focus on healthy eating, taking more exercise and increasing awareness about what it is to keep fit and healthy. As I work in the area of home economics and life skills, I felt it was an opportune time to focus on keeping our hearts healthy.

It is hard for pupils with intellectual disability to visualise what exactly a heart looks like, or to realise that what they put into their mouths can affect the health of their hearts. There are all sorts of YouTube videos, models and books to aid the learning process, but there is still nothing like a real heart. So I bought a few lambs’ hearts in our local Centra in Tower.

Preparing for class, I stood one heart upright with various props. I cut another one in half so that the inside could be viewed. The third had a thick covering of fat around it. As I had anticipated, there were expressions of revulsion and horror when I produced them.

Gradually, horror turned to curiosity, which is the catalyst for learning. The layer of fat had hardened a bit and we were able to see how difficult it was for that heart to pump the blood. This lamb had eaten too much fatty foods. It was a stark reminder for the teacher too, who thought about her own heart and wondered what kind of a layer of fat might be around it. During the class, one young lad asked if you could eat heart. As I began to talk, the memories came rushing back. It was from my mother that I’d learned to prepare a heart for the oven.

I remember her showing me how to choose the hearts with the smallest knife cuts at the butcher shop, so that they would hold the stuffing.

I recalled how she prepared them, cutting the inside pieces out with a scissors and trimming the top. Then the stuffing was put in and each was wrapped in tinfoil to keep them soft. Kidneys and liver were often cooked too. Consequently, I like them all. I’m a believer in the wonderment of cooking and I find that students respond to that.

So I began the search for relevant recipes in the many cook books that I’ve collected over the years. Offal is rarely covered, a thing of the past almost. I decided to go with memory instead. So we began the process of preparation.

The pupils were enthralled, delighting in the new adventure and loving the story about my mother. Unfortunately, due to the long cooking time, it was the following day before we could cook and plate them up.

The excitement was more than if we were having chocolate cake. The tasting began. There was only one student who didn’t like the heart. The other five loved it.

Each pupil in the group had a stuffed heart going home. That same day we’d also cooked stuffed liver and bacon. We had a small portion left over. So I asked if anyone wanted to take it home. All the hands shot up at once. The raffle took place and Susie was devastated.

Who would have ever thought that young teenagers who are conservative in their tastes would have eaten and enjoyed stuffed hearts and stuffed liver?

They had come a long way in their learning from the first day that I brought in the hearts. The good news for me is that the students want to cook them again.

Cheaper cuts

Stories aside, it is important that we retain the cheaper cuts and remember how to cook them. Offal is a huge part of that and utterly nutritious. Low-cost meals really do help to keep food costs down. It is not all about liver pâté and steak. All we have to do is prepare in advance to allow for the sometimes long cooking time. It’s most pleasant to come in out of the yard and have the dinner ready in the oven. But it does take forward planning.

Still, I hate when the lads ask: “What’s for supper?” as we take off the wellies in the garage, because sometimes I’ve no idea until I open the fridge. That’s not to be recommended. We should never allow ourselves to be too busy to plan our meals.