Nose To Tail At Home

The perfect breakfast on your birthday, with a glass of Black Velvet (half Guinness and half Champagne).

I had originally wanted to make this on my birthday back in January, but I was unable to find any place locally that carried lamb kidneys. It’s a real shame too, because this recipe is just wonderful, as well as amazingly simple.

Here we have six lovely little lamb kidneys ready to be pan fried. Firstly though, I needed to split them all in half, and then remove a little bit of hard white gristle.

In a bowl I mixed flour, some cayenne pepper, Coleman’s Dry mustard powder, salt and pepper. Once everything was combined, I dredged all of the kidney halves in the spiced flour.

In a sizzling hot frying pan I melted a knob of butter, and dropped the kidneys in. As they hit the pan, they began to firm up very quickly. I was reminded of Pillbugs rolling themselves up. After a few minutes I flipped the kidneys over and browned the other side.

With both sides cooked, I added a nice splash of Worcestershire sauce and chicken stock and let the liquid reduce down.

I plopped two thick pieces of toast down on a plate and covered each slice heavily with kidney halves and the reduced pan sauce. I was a bit worried about the kidneys having a uric-like flavor, because they sure smelled like urea while I was cutting them. Thankfully the cooking and spiced flour removed any trace of the foul smell and left a lovely spicy, tasty chunk of meat. The texture was actually a bit like eating a bit of Portobello mushroom which was a little surprising. I also followed Mr. Henderson’s suggestion and poured myself a nice Black Velvet. If you can get a hold of lamb kidneys, don’t just make this dish only on your birthday; make it as often as you can!

One down, one hundred to go.