Sunday, November 9, 2008

An offal evening

DaNece has left town for a week to tour Vegas with her mom, leaving me all alone for the next seven days.

 

This means that I have free reign to cook whatever my twisted little heart desires.

Which is dangerous.

 

When you add to this fact that the nearby grocery chain has begun carrying the wonder that is offal, you have a decidedly dangerous combination. Yes, the world of beef heart, tongue, liver, and tripe are all available to me now in a convenient shopping location.

 

I'm a happy boy. :)

 

So, this evening I made beef heart, something I've never had before. The best part? The price! 1.7 pounds of meat for $3!!! How could I not try it?:

 

I decided to go with a simple method: flour it with some spices and fry:

 

Alongside the heart I wanted something sweet. An acorn squash fit the bill perfectly after adding some butter and brown sugar:

 

I added some mashed potatoes and gravy and ended up with this:

 

The heart was fantastic. Cooked to ~medium and tasty as all get out. A nice beefy taste a nice texture even! Enough for me, the room mate, 2 dogs, and there is still some left. for $3!!!!!

 

Eat your heart out! :)

7 comments:

quilteddogs said...

Ughhh. I won't be trying that out any time soon. Especially after watching that video you posted. Gag.

TomboCheck said...

It was delish QuiltedDogs!!! And it failed entirely to sprout lips and sing me a song. Not that I would have minded a little entertainment, but the mess singing hearts make is a heck of a cleanup. :)

Melissa said...

Laughing at your comment.

I've never eaten any offal aside from tongue. I'm willing to give it a shot, but probably down the road a ways.

I replied to your comment on my soup, but I'll repeat here - I'm making the other acorn squash I have exactly this same way later this week. Looking forward to it.

TomboCheck said...

melissa - I've got a bit of an adventurous streak, but this was pretty tame. If you like the beefy flavor of steak you will like heart. The texture is a little different, but not enough as to be unappealing.

As for the acorn squash - After some trial and error i recommend cooking it cut-side-down in about 1/4" of water for 20-25 minutes @375. Then yank them out, ditch the water, put a pad of butter and a spoon full of sugar in each, cover with foil, and stick back in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

Every other way I have tried results in a hard 'skin' at the top of the squash that takes away from the texture of the rest. The cooking in water softens up the whole thing, and the foil helps prevent the skin from forming. :)

TomboCheck said...

Anytime. :)

Linda G. said...

My Mom used to stuff heart with a bread and sage dressing and then roast it in the oven. Wonder if she added water and steamed it at first ...seems it could dry out pretty fast.. it was good.
I don't know why I've never done that.
E is very fond of tongue.
Tripe...well I've eaten menudo..but am not overly fond of it..
Your meal looked very tasty:)

TomboCheck said...

SOLB - I imagine that a little water in the pan would help hydrate a roasting heart. And that sounds like a mighty tasty meal!

I've had the same experience with tripe. Menudo in restaurants is okay, but not something that I crave. I've heard that trip is good when it is fried, but have never tried it myself.

Tongue is the bomb. :)