I spent last weekend in Toronto visiting family. Upon arriving home I was told that dinner that night was a mixed grill, to celebrate my homecoming. Apparently Mum and Dad had eaten a lot of mixed grills when they were in the UK, and because of my love of all things offal (and my new blog) she wanted to make it for me. Having never had a mixed grill before Mum explained that it was traditionally kidney's and lamb chops and we were going to serving it with baked tomatoes and sauteed mushrooms. We were including liver because it's my favorite. I love liver, and I've been dreaming of a good plate of liver and onions for months; apparently I mentioned that once or twice. We had calves liver and kidney's as well as pork kidney's.
Pig kidney
It was Mum's job to prepare the kidney's, and my Uncle's job to prepare the liver. Mum got side tracked and my Uncle Bunny ended up preparing the liver, and the calves kidney's for the frying pan.
Liver waiting for flour, and a nice hot pan.
Mum did step in to prepare the pig kidney's
Mum removing the chewy bits.
We had some of my best, oldest friends over as well. Not all of whom like offal, so we also served a sausage from the St. Lawrence Market as well as the lamb chops. Because this was my party all I had to do was the tomatoes and mushrooms, which was fine with me.
Once the kidney's and liver were about to go into the pan everything began to move fast, so I was in the way no matter where I was standing and trying to take pictures. I have no idea what Mum and Bunny seasoned everything with, outside of flour, but these kidney's were much better than the
kidney's I made earlier this summer.
Liver on the left, kidney's on the right.
Both the liver and kidney's were cooked perfectly, and I'm not 100% of everything that went on, so I'm not sure if I could replicate it. There was beautiful crisp bacon, and sweet caramelized onions. The tomatoes were roasted with a bread crumb top and the mushrooms were cooked slowly in red wine. The lamb chops and sausage were also good, but were second tier compared to the liver and kidney's.
My plate.
We ate out in the garden, and it was dark so excuse the lighting. In front there's the liver covered in onions and a piece of crispy bacon. Behind the liver is the lamb chop, sausage and kidney's. The tomato is at the back next to some fried potatoes and the red wine mushrooms.
Lots of wine and really good friends made the absolutely giant pile of dishes all over the kitchen seem less daunting. It was great to be back in Toronto among good friends and family. And I just happen to be doubly blessed with a group of people who really know how to cook up a kidney.
Every now and again I find something interesting and potentially yummy at my local big box grocery store (for me it's a Super Stop & Shop) and this week it was a very alluring looking beef kidney. The most kidney experience I have is my Mum's Steak and Kidney pie, which is a childhood favorite. I don't have the time to make myself a pie so I'm going to fry some beef kidney's and make a quick gravy and serve them on some toast for lunch.
I began by soaking the kidney in cold water for a few hours. I changed the water a couple times, but I wasn't really compulsive about it. Many people suggest putting different organs (liver and kidney's mostly) in milk instead of water. When I asked Omi about that she said that she never did because she thought it was a waste of perfectly good milk. When in doubt go with Grannie.
Kidney soaking in water.
For a guideline I'm using a
Mrs. Beeton recipe I found online. Basically I'm going to fry the kidney and some finely diced onion in some butter season with a little pepper, sprinkle with a spoonful of flour and then add a mixture of powdered (reconstituted) beef stock, which tends to be very salty hence the lack of salt initially. And then simmer until thickened.
First I clean the kidney. Remove any hard sinew or fat. There are many nobules in a kidney, you want to take them off the center core which is too tough to eat. Ideally you'll be able to remove these nobules but keep their beautiful plump shape. Rinse these beauties in cold water a few times once they've been separated to help remove some of the blood they will seep.
Once your kidney's are ready for the pan melt your butter and add the onion and cook until translucent. Then add the kidney's in a single layer so they brown and don't steam. Once they've got nice colour add some crushed black pepper and followed by a spoonful of flour rolling the kidneys in the flour to both coat the kidney's and cook the flour.
Now add your liquid, homemade stock would be way better but powdered stock is what I've got, then simmer and reduce. Make some toast and taste the kidney and sauce. Re-season if it needs it. I added a couple drops of Worcestershire sauce (later I realised it was a tad too much, so be careful). Pour this over your slices of toast and sit down for a lovely lunch!
I served my kidneys with a side of sliced roasted beets leftover from the weekend, and if I didn't have a bunch of writing to do this afternoon I'd have a nice mug of stout alongside my kidney's, but I've got a full day and can't afford to be sluggish.
The flavor of the kidney turned out to be very strong. Next time I'm going to do some things differently, like halve or even quarter the kidney nobules. For those of you just starting into the world of offal consider yourself warned, these flavors are strong.
Nonetheless a very nice lunch.
RSS Feed