Bird feeder 3

This is a recipe for bird cake, I don't know any other name for it but it probably has one. Bird cake attracts waxeyes, chaffinches, sparrows, dunnocks, greenfinches and starlings. If you live in warmer climes (like the north island) you might get myna birds too.   

You will need:
1 part suet
1 part wild bird seed

Melt the suet over medium heat, when melted take off the heat and stir in the bird seed, you can add extra bird seed if you think it needs it. Pour into a plastic container and leave to set overnight. When it is set press it out of the container and put it on your bird table.

Chilli sauce

I invented some chilli sauce, it was an amalgamation of various recipes I found on the internet, it is quite strong so you could reduce the number of chillies. The quantities are very approximate.

10-20 chilies, I used a variety called wildfire (from the garden center)

1/2 - 3/4 Cup white vinegar,

a whole lime, skin and all

salt

1-2 t cumin

1-2 t coriander seed

a little bit of tomato

1-2 T ginger

9 cloves garlic

1-2 onion

Cook until very soft, about 2 hours, then whiz in the food processor until smooth.

Haggis

About a month ago I made haggis, it was very interesting and took a long time. This is not exactly a recipe, more like notes.

We got a sheep to put in the freezer, and I went along when it was being cut up and saved the lungs, stomach, heart, liver and suet from the dismal fate of being thrown out and buried in a hole.

The next day there ensued a long search on the internet for instructions of how to clean a sheep's stomach, because running the hose through it was ineffective.

To clean a sheep's stomach you need rubber gloves, a knife, and lots of boiling water, you pour the water on the stomach and then scrape it with the knife and the greenness should come off, it also smells awful.

After about 2 hours the stomach was clean, (it still smelled but there was nothing I could do about that)

 while I was cleaning the stomach, the heart, lungs and liver had been simmering in a pot on the fire

 I took them out and put the heart and lungs through the mincer which was very enjoyable. Then I grated the liver and some of the suet and mixed it all together.

Then I mixed up the seasonings, onions, pepper, chilli, and herbs (not sure which ones) next time I would double everything.

Then I mixed that in together with some steel-cut oats

and then stuffed it all in the stomach and sewed in up with string.

  Then it was boiled for a long time (4 hours?) and we ate it the next day to the accompaniment of a strange poem that is traditional to read when eating haggis, Mum translated it so we could understand it.