Sheep's hearts in plum sauce

This is a nice dish. I imagine the sauce would be quite good with other dark, gamy meats, like wild duck,  wild goose or possibly wild boar.

To serve 6:
6 lamb's or sheep's hearts
100 g flour
butter for frying
salt and pepper
6 well ripe plums (it doesn't say which kind, but the photo with the recipe shows red plums with yellow flesh - BTW, don't expect to see any such thing when the dish is cooked, since the luscious plum wedges shown in the image are a fiction of food photography)
1 large yellow onion, chopped
100 ml sweet white wine
meat broth (e.g. lamb, chicken or vegetable) or water
2 tbsp cornstarch (or potato starch, or Maizena sauce thickener)

First, here's how I had to compromise on the recipe: The week before I made it, I saw at least three varieties of plums in every food shop I entered and they always seemed to be so ripe as to be on the verge of becoming liquid inside their skins. The day I actually went to buy them all I could find were rock-hard purple plums, the kind which seem to go from hard to spoiled overnight and never really have a nice flavour. I used them anyway and near the end of the cooking time I could hardly taste them at all. I don't know what genius was watching over me but all of a sudden I had the idea of adding a dash of soy sauce. It was done purely to try to improve the rather bland flavour with a bit of salty soyness, but after about 10 minutes more cooking I thickened the sauce and tasted it and found it bursting with a plummy sweetness, well-balanced against a slightly salty note with gamy undertones. I think the MSG in the soy sauce must have brought out the umami flavour in the sauce and amplified the plum flavour. Anyway, you shouldn't have to worry about adding MSG if you use properly ripe plums.
Oh, and I used water and not broth, which may have had some effect as well.

To make the dish:
Trim the fat from the hearts and slice each lengthwise into 6-7 wedges. Wash and then soak under running cold water for 2 hours.
While the hearts soak, chop the onions and remove the stones from the plums and cut each into 6 wedges.
Remove the hearts from the water, pat them dry and dredge the pieces in flour. Brown in hot butter and season with salt and pepper. 
Add the plums and the onion and then the wine. Simmer until the liquid is reduced by about 1/3.
Add the broth or water to cover and cook for 1-2 hours (depending on the thickness of the heart pieces and whether they were from an adult sheep or a lamb, or you could just compromise and cook them for 1 1/2 hours).
Make a paste from the cornstarch/potato starch and cold water and stir into the sauce until it is thickened to your liking (Maizena can be poured directly into the liquid to be thickened).

Serve with parsley and fresh vegetables.

20 MINUTE ORGANIC BLACK BEAN AND CHIPOTLE CHICKEN CHILI

This recipe takes NO MORE than 20 minutes to prepare.  It hardly needs to be written!  I have included easy to follow pictures with a few suggestions for amounts included, but honestly, the prep is insanely quick and easy. 

Enjoy. 

Add this (1 to 1 1/2 cups each) organic celery, carrot, and onion, to one pound of cooked organic ground chicken, turkey, or grass fed organic ground beef.  I often use 4 organic chicken burgers, and break them up in the bottom of the pot as they cook. See photos below.
Add organic beans and organic pasta sauce. (Pasta sauce should be from a glass jar.)The only spice I add is chipotle powder.  (If you  want to add other seasonings, feel free!  Just know that this chili has been called "EPIC CHILI" by some very discriminating eaters.)
Add water as desired to thin out the recipe.  I usually find this is not necessary.

I use organic chicken (or beef) "burgers" that I get in the frozen section at the organic market. You can put them in the bottom of the pot right from the freezer, and break them up, or get about 1 pound of ground organic chicken (or grass fed beef).  Either way, it will take you about 3 minutes to get your meat broken up as you see in the picture below.

 You're done!  Bring the chili to a boil, and then let the chili simmer until the vegetables are tender - this usually means about 10 to 15 minutes.

Sheep's hearts cooked in red wine

This is a nice recipe for lamb's or sheep's hearts. Hearts from an adult sheep will need slightly longer cooking than lamb hearts.

To serve 4.

4 lamb or sheep hearts

Marinade:
100 ml table vinegar
2 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried)
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 laurel leaves
salt and pepper

For cooking:
100 g butter
100 g smoked bacon, finely chopped
10-15 shallots, sliced
1-2 tbsp flour
400-500 ml red wine
100-200 ml water
salt and pepper

200 g whole small mushrooms, sautéed

Cut the fat off the hearts, flush them well under running cold water and cut lengthwise into four parts each. Make the marinade and marinade the heart pieces for 4-6 hours. (I found 4 hours sufficient, but 6 will give a more intense flavour).

Melt the butter in a Dutch oven or deep frying pan. Remove the hearts from the marinade and brown in the butter. Add bacon and onions. Sprinkle the sifted flour into the pan and let it soak up the butter. Add red wine and water, stir to mix well and season with salt and pepper.

Simmer until the hearts are cooked, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Add the sautéed mushrooms and season to taste if necessary. Serve hot.

There are no suggestions as to what to serve with this, but I suggest poached potatoes and a fresh salad and a nice red wine.

I am cooking another heart dish as I type this and will post it if it turns out good.

PECAN SHORTBREAD COOKIES

I have had this recipe in my notes for so long, I honestly don’t know where I found it.  I did change the preparation instructions, though, to simplify the process, but props to the original writer, whoever you may be. 

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups blanched almond flour

¼ teaspoon kosher or sea salt

¼ teaspoon aluminum free baking soda

1 cup chopped raw pecans

½ cup organic butter

1/8 teaspoon Now brand or Kal brand stevia

1 tablespoon pure vanilla (no sugar – check the label)

Preparation:

1.       In a stand mixer, or using an electric hand held beater, combine the butter and stevia.  Add the vanilla and mix again until all three ingredients are incorporated.

2.       In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients, including the pecans.

3.      Combine the butter mixture with the dry ingredients.

4.      Using a piece of parchment paper, form the dough into a log, approximately 2 ½ inches in diameter. 

5.      Freeze the log for approximately 1 hour; then unwrap and cut into 1/8 inch slices.

6.      Place the slices on a baking sheet lined with a clean piece of parchment paper.

7.      Bake at 350 degrees until lightly golden, approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

8.      Cool and serve. 

Makes 24 cookies

Green Juice - You Can't Imagine How Great This Tastes!

I don't know how many of you have seen the film, "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead."  It is a very inspiring story of an Australian man's journey to heal himself from the inside.  To do this, he traveled across the United States armed with a juicer! Along the way, he met many people who also needed a bit of a food intervention and introduced them to the idea of juicing.  Since I saw the film, I have been incorporating this green juice into my nutrition and I LOVE it!  Here's a link to a recipe for the green juice featured in the film by one of the more inspiring characters, Phil Staples.
Yes, I know it's green.  What you need to know is: IT IS DELICIOUS!
Enjoy.

3 Cheese Zucchini Bites

Zucchini is abundant this time of year. These tiny bites make the perfect "amuse bouche" before dinner,  and they would be wonderful to pass around at a backyard party.  When we tested this recipe, the two of us ate every last one, and would have eaten another batch!

Zucchini is one of the vegetables you really want to buy organic. But if you grow your own and don't use crazy toxic pesticides, feel free to enjoy the bounty of your garden!

Enjoy.


Ingredients:

1 cups zucchini, grated
1 egg
¼ cup raw parmesan cheese, finely grated
¼ cup almond flour
2 shallots, diced
¼ cup grated cheese (I used a raw grated mozza/cheddar blend.)
Salt and Pepper

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Grease 1 or 2 mini muffin tins with coconut oil.

2. Grate the zucchini and then place in a dish towel to squeeze out the excess water. You have probably done something like this if you have used frozen spinach. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP.

3. In a bowl, combine the egg, onion, cheeses, almond flour, zucchini, salt and pepper.

4. Using a spoon or a mini cookie scoop, fill the muffin cups to the top. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the top is browned and set.

Yield 15 - 18 mini muffins

Icelandic food history

I came across an excellent potted history of Icelandic cooking, on the website of the cooking magazine Gestgjafinn and decided to post a link. It was written by Icelandic food and cookery doyenne Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir. Do read it if you are interested in the traditions and influences in Icelandic cookery.