Offal, often unloved by many housewives, is good because it is inexpensive and tasty as a component of appetizers and as main dishes.
Dishes from the kidneys of both pork and beef, dishes that include chicken, goose liver, all kinds of pastes and much more that you can think of offal - all this can be seen on tables in many houses.
How to buy and store kidneys.
The main thing to remember is that offal is fresh. A faint, not very pleasant smell will immediately warn of some stale product. The liver should be dense, the kidneys should also be firm to the touch and fleshy. It’s best to buy these products on the same day you are about to cook them. Before you start using them, you need to thoroughly rinse the liver and kidneys under a stream of cold water and dry. It is best to soak offal.
For example, before preparing dishes from the kidneys, they are soaked in milk or salted water (about 600 ml of water about a teaspoon of salt) for about two hours.
To prepare dishes from the kidneys, the following are used: lamb, pork and bovine (beef).
Lamb kidneys weigh about 20 - 25 grams each and are usually small in size. As a rule, coated with fat. It is better to choose an almost dark brown color. Prepare dishes from kidneys of this species, making sure that the kidneys do not lose moisture and do not overdry.
Pork kidneys are larger in terms of lamb, and therefore weigh 100 - 150 grams. The taste is more saturated and more dense in structure of the structure than the previous ones. Soaking these kidneys is mandatory, this will soften their taste. Cutting in half, you need to disconnect the middle and cook according to the recipe. To dry and these kidneys are not recommended.
Bull kidneys are the largest and weigh up to 700 grams. They are also dark brown in color, like others. This species has a sharper smell. Soaking bovine kidneys is a must. When cooking, you need to cut the core, cut the pulp into pieces and put out. It can be added to soups, but it is better to cook as an independent dish due to their pungent odor. This type of kidney requires prolonged heat treatment.
In order to cook dishes from the kidneys, you need a little preliminary preparation of offal. First, the kidney needs to be cleaned of film and fat. To remove the thin film covering the pulp, an incision must be made in the middle of the kidney from the lower side and the film removed from both sides. After this, the kidney is cut into two (lengthwise) or four parts (lengthwise and crosswise) and the white core is removed. After that, you can start cooking.
Pork kidney dishes are quite diverse and popular. Cookbooks and culinary site pages offer a huge number of such dishes. Kidneys in sauce (wine), kidneys in Russian, kidneys in sour cream and other recipes are easy to find on the Internet.
Beef Kidney Dishes : kidney skewers with garlic oil.
To prepare this dish for four people you will need: a dozen beef kidneys, 4 tablespoons of melted butter, 100 g breadcrumbs (preferably wheat), 4 slices of bacon, vegetable oil for lubrication and watercress for decoration. For garlic oil you will need: 100 g of softened oil, two finely chopped cloves of garlic, fresh or dried parsley (tablespoon).
First, prepare the butter. Grind butter with garlic and other spices (salt, parsley, pepper). After that, put it on a sheet of baking paper and make the shape of a cylinder and leave to cool.
Halve (quarter) the kidneys with oil and season, roll in breadcrumbs. String on skewers with pieces of bacon in the form of rolls. Preheat the grill, grease the grill pan-grill. Fry for three minutes on each side. When serving, cut the garlic oil into circles, put kidneys on it and garnish with watercress.