Return of the Offal

I may have made it clear just how much of a fan I am of offal. Unfortunately as time ticks on – now less than 12 weeks remaining I have to face these challenges. A trip to the Aussie Butcher left me with no less than 5 sheep’s kidneys. You can probably imagine my excitement.

I picked two recipes to tackle – kidney soup and steak and kidney pie.

Kidney soup was not one of the undiscovered gems of the Edmonds. It’s a little like what I imagine people having eaten in the depression or at least what Grandparents served up to unfortunate grandchildren on weekend visits. Kidneys, onion and macaroni floating in stock. I particularly liked the large amount of scum that came to the surface during boiling. Needless to say I ate one mouthful and resigned it to the plug hole. I think the photo speaks for itself.

Steak and Kidney was more successful. I cooked the meat slowly on the stove for several hours and then placed it into ramekins the next day and covered with pastry. You could hardly taste the kidney although admittedly there was only 1 kidney in the whole mix – the recipe said 1 or 2, what do you think I was going to do!
So two more offal recipes down. I’ve still got the sweetbreads, brains and tongue and many more kidney recipes to go. I’d love to say I was looking forward to it!