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| Savory chunks of lamb's liver and heart cooked in a sauce with wine. Simple and delicious. |
La cocina de la abuela is a cuisine of aprovechamiento, of knowing how to take advantage of all food. How to turn leftovers into a tasty meal—today’s fried fish go into tomorrow’s fish soup. How to use all the parts of a butchered animal. How to feed a family with little means. To describe la cocina de la abuela we use words such as reconfortante, comfort food; de cuchara, spoon food; humilde, humble; casera or de hogar, home cooking; económico, thrifty; frugal.
I qualify as an abuela. So, last week, when presented with a bagful of lamb viscera—we had roasted one lamb and butchered another for the freezer—it seemed appropriate to cook like an abuela.
While cooking with wine might seem unlikely in granny's kitchen, I can assure you that, in former times, a jug of wine was more likely to hand than fresh drinking water that had to be carried from a spring. In the pueblo kitchens where I cooked alongside various abuelas, that wine was usually a dry white wine from Montilla (Córdoba), somewhat in the style of fino Sherry.
Potatoes, usually fried, were the thrifty abuela's addition to any meal. They extended a small quantity of meat to feed a large family.
I started with two livers, two hearts, and four kidneys. I lost abuela points for frugality because I pitched out the lungs (pulmones). I remember eating them in a tapas bar years ago and did not much care for their texture. I never found the sweetbreads (mollejas). The tripe had been discarded when the animals were slaughtered. And, I never saw the heads, so no brains or tongue.
Organ meats are highly perishable, best consumed very fresh. So, a day after the lamb-roasting party, I cooked off all the casquería, offal or “variety meats” in a day!
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| Lamb kidneys in Sherry sauce go nicely with mashed potatoes. |
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| Patatas fritas! Fries to go with the saucy liver and heart dish. |
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| Sliced liver, dusted with flour and fried in olive oil, still pink in the center. This is my preferred way to cook liver. I didn't even bother with onions, but served the liver accompanied by zeilouk, a spicy Moroccan dish of eggplant with onions. |
Lamb’s Liver and Heart in Granny’s Sauce
Asadurilla en Salsa de la Abuelita
Heart is a muscle, more like lean meat than it is like visceral liver. It can be sliced and quickly grilled or else cooked slowly until tender. Abuela probably would cook both the firm heart and delicate liver (and lungs, if using) all together. However, I added the tender liver to cook only a few minutes at the very end.
Serves 6 (or, with potatoes, more).
2 pounds lamb hearts and liver
¼ tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
¾ cup chopped red bell pepper
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 grated tomato
1/3 cup white wine
¾ cup meat or chicken stock
Salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
Sprig of thyme
Chopped parsley
Soak the hearts and livers separately in ice water to remove all traces of blood. Drain.
Cut the hearts and liver into bite-size pieces, discarding any hard bits and membrane. Keep the two meats separate. Pat dry.
Heat half the oil in a heavy skillet on medium-high. Fry the pieces of liver until lightly browned on all sides and skim them out. Brown the pieces of heart and remove to a separate plate.
Lamb Kidneys with Sherry
Riñones al Jerez
Serves 4.
8 ounces clean lamb kidneys
Milk to soak the kidneys
2 teaspoons flour + more for dredging
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup finely chopped onions or shallots
1 ounce chopped bacon
4 ounces sliced mushrooms
2 cloves minced garlic
¼ cup dry Sherry
¾ cup meat or chicken stock
¼ cup peas
Pimentón (paprika)
Chopped parsley
Cut the kidneys in quarters, removing the kernel of fat in each. Place the kidneys in a small bowl and cover them with milk. Let them soak, covered and refrigerated, at least 1 hour. Drain them well and discard the milk. Dust the kidneys with flour that has been mixed with salt and pepper.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a skillet on medium-high. Fry the kidneys quickly, turning them to lightly brown both sides. They do not need to cook through. Remove and reserve them.
Add the onions to the oil and sauté on medium 2 minutes. Add the bacon, mushrooms, and garlic. Drizzle with remaining 1 tablespoon of oil. Sauté until mushrooms are browned, 4-5 minutes. Add the Sherry and cook off the alcohol. Stir in 2 teaspoons of flour. Add the stock and cook, stirring, until sauce is thickened slightly. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Return the kidneys to the pan and simmer them on medium-low until they are cooked through, 5 minutes. Add the peas.
Serve the kidneys and sauce sprinkled with pimentón and parsley.
More recipes with offal:
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