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Kidneys in B Minor




Source of Recipe


Stiltshire


List of Ingredients




For two:
8-10 lambs’ kidneys
6 spring onions
1 stick of celery
a few button mushrooms
¼ pt double cream
1 glass of dry sherry
brown rice
tarragon
fresh parsley
black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
butter

Recipe



You will need fresh English lambs’ kidneys for this dish. Try to ensure they are unbruised and intact with the skin still on. Alas it is well nigh impossible these days to buy kidneys with the protective coating of suet still in situ.

Firstly, put some brown rice in a saucepan of lightly salted boiling water with a dash of olive oil. It should then be cooked by the time the kidneys are ready.

Skin the kidneys, slice them lengthways with a sharp filleting knife and cut the halves into three, removing the unsavoury bits in the centre at the same time.

Heat a little olive oil and a knob of butter in a heavy, flat pan. Scrub the celery stick, cut into thin slices and saute them gently in the pan. Wipe the mushrooms and slice them thinly and chop the spring onions, being careful not to neglect the pan meanwhile.

Put the kidneys into the pan, together with the mushrooms, a restrained sprinkling of tarragon and a little black pepper, and stir the contents briskly over a moderate heat for a couple more minutes. Then pour in a good sherry glass of dry sherry (a reasonable fino or manzanilla) and throw in the chopped spring onions, turn the heat down and let the thing simmer, stirring frequently.

’Ere long the kidneys will have ceased to bleed and the liquid will have reduced to a thick sauce. [These two events should occur at more or less the same time; if you have really timed it to perfection, the rice will be tender and ready to eat by this stage as well.] Stir the cream into the kidneys and immediately remove the pan from the heat.

Drain the rice, arrange a ring of it on each plate and ladle the kidneys into the middle. A little chopped fresh parsley scattered on the top will enhance the visual appeal.

A simple green side salad is all that is required by way of accompaniment; perhaps a few leaves of lollo rosso and thin staves of courgette tossed in walnut oil and raspberry vinegar.

Almost any red wine could be drunk with this dish. Faugeres has a particulary affinity with kidneys but, for a slightly more than ordinary occasion, a well-rounded red Burgundy, such as Fleurie, would be most harmonious.

Perhaps I should explain, dear reader, lest you strain the grey matter unduly in trying to read some arcane significance into the key signature, that this recipe was devised after a rehearsal for Bach’s B Minor Mass.