Nose To Tail At Home

Welcome to the very first guest post!  I’m starting a new section where anyone who wants to show of an offal dish can submit a post with pictures.  Feel like sharing grandma’s old recipe for squirrel melts?  Are you a wizard with gizzards?  Let me know and we’ll post your hard work here!

I am lucky enough to live near Union Square in New York City, where there are, on Fridays, two lamb farmers, two pig farmers and a goat farmer offering various cuts and variety meats.  Beef and bison are available as well.  There is even a third pig farmer with a better selection of variety meats on Wednesdays – or is it Fridays?

Due to this Happy Circumstance, I have been the honored recipient of many interesting and unusual cuts.  One way to cause a sensation at Whole Foods is to buy a whole pig’s head from Flying Pigs Farm (call them Wednesday night and ask Michael or Jennifer nicely,) and then cart it through the vegetable section in its clear plastic bag.  Its a conversation starter.   I have also acquired pig tails, trotters, tongues, hearts, the occasional medallion and chop, and bacon from them. These particular hearts came from 3-Corner Field Farms, purveyors of lamb: I have found necks, heart, kidneys, tongues, a fine crown of chops, and lamb liver from the various vendors there.  Also landed some goat shanks.

I was raised eating lamb kidneys for breakfast in the late sixties and early 70′s.  I went to The Temple in 2006,  twice, and covered the table with dishes, eating everything in site, with my good friend Nick Scramuzza.  I am especially fond of pig’s feet, crispy like they serve them at Les Halles on Park Avenue, and sweetbreads.

Having recently grilled slices of heart quickly, and appreciating its mild yet-irony, tender goodness, I thought it a worthwhile exercise to do one of The Master’s recipes, specifically, Stuffed Lamb’s Hearts from page 96 of The Whole Beast. the idea is that you make a sage, red-wine and onion stuffing, wrap them in bacon, and braise them in chicken stock for two and a half hours.

I acquired the ingredients, as well as a decent $12 bottle of Rhône: Chateau de La Chaize 2006, a lively, excellent and fruity Gamay.

Hearts must be carefully trimmed: they have a bit of gristle and unwanted fat, and a mostly thin silverskin, yet for the stuffing, it is important that you preserve the integrity of the two chambers which will hold the stuffing.  Practice careful knife work.  A percentage of the hearts you buy will be “damaged” for this purpose.  If one of the receptacles gets cut, you can fake your way through it… a bacon-wrap hides many sins.

Onions and bread cubes and a decent wine makes an amazing stuffing.  Chop the sage fine.

Making the packages is something of an endeavor – I couldn’t really get the floppy things to deal with string and with a few exceptions, I’m not very good at string and meats in any case.  I used bamboo shish-kebab skewers.

I also cut back on the bacon – three per with the heavy slices I had seemed like too much bacon.  (Yes, yes, I know, I just said “…too much bacon.:  Get over it.)

And, for the record, a 90 degree summer day is not the ideal time to braise.  Ah, the sacrifices we make for you, loyal reader.

This is a very rich dish, thanks to the bacon.  They go well with mashed neeps, and Pickled Walnuts. (The acid in pickled things provides a fantastic counterpoint to the
unctuous fattiness in many offal dishes.)  It was quite a success!