Scrapple

Scrapple! How I have not thought to make this before is a wonder to me, as it combines all kinds of things I love - liver, bone broth, and I used wild rice along with cornmeal - all in a breakfast sausage/toast kind of thing. It is so good! Good enough to resurrect a blog post. Because of the collagen-y broth, this sets (and keeps) in the fridge, so you just slice off a piece and then fry it up.

I mostly followed Forager Chef's recipe, but Hank Shaw at Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook has a nice looking one for the more traditional pig head scrapple. I don't know if my farm could get me a pig head, but might be fun to try. Scrapple seems fairly flexible, and I almost always have liver and bone broth around, which makes this pretty easy. For this first attempt I used a pound of goat liver and 3 slices of bacon (because it is what I had in the fridge), though any bits of leftover meat would do. You could start the whole thing from scratch following their recipes if you have meaty bones/a pig head. 

Liver (or organ) Scrapple

• 3-4 slices bacon
• half small onion, diced
• 16 oz lamb/goat/chicken livers (or a mix of livers/hearts/kidneys)
  
• 4 c bone broth (you need the collagen!) 
• 1 T salt
• 1 c cornmeal (fine or course)
• 1 c wild rice flour (ground wild rice)
  
• 1/4 c buckwheat flour
• 3/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

1. Prepare a loaf pan: I recommend using tin foil, parchment, or wax paper under/along the sides of a greased pan so that you can easily lift out the scrapple. Or, just grease the loaf pan and have at it. 
   
2. Cook bacon slices and render out the fat. When bacon is done, brown the onions in said fat.
3. In a food processor, process the liver (or offal) with bacon and onions and grind to a paste. (This is kind of weird b/c the offal is raw.) Put this mix into a small saucepan and cook for several minutes to sweat off the excess moisture. It will probably stick to the bottom of the pan, so stir as you go. 
4. Whisk the flours and spices in a large bowl.
   
5. In a large saucepan or pot, heat the bone broth and whisk in the flours. Keep whisking until it starts to thicken. Turn heat to low, and stir regularly for 15 minutes, then add the meat mix and cook another 30 minutes, stirring regularly so it does not stick OR put the whole thing in the loaf pan and cook in a 300 degree oven for 30 minutes. **I was too afraid of all the sticking, being as my mixture was so thick after 5 minutes with just the rice and cornmeal. So I added everything in then and there and stuck it all in the oven for 40 minutes. Alan Bergo says to bake it covered, but I found mine needed to be uncovered halfway through.
6. When the scrapple is fairly solid and the cornmeal/wild rice is well cooked, "pour" (more like spoon) the mixture into the greased loaf pan. Chill the pan, uncovered on the counter until room temperature, then refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap, until completely set before slicing.

Serve with eggs and whatever you like. Many people eat this with maple syrup, a la bacon and pancakes. I thought it was delicious as a conduit for runny eggs.   

Argentinian Style Marinated Lamb Tongue

At the behest of my friend who grew up eating lamb and goat tongue (it is so delicious, she said), I ordered some lamb tongue on my quarterly meat order from Hilltop Family Farms. I've been eyeing tongue for awhile - sort of wanting to try it, but cow tongue is so enormous that it was more of a side-eye look. I hadn't totally thought about smaller animals until she mentioned it. Goat and lamb tongue seem like great entry options, they are small and seem less intimidating. Also, my Odd Bits cookbook describes lamb tongue as mild, which I found reassuring. Jennifer McLagan (of Odd bits) is a fan of tongue brining, which I'll try in the future.

It seems people most often slow braise their tongues, and then peel the outer tongue layer while warm. This family recipe was passed on to MN chef, Alan Bergo, who I stumbled upon while perusing internet tongue recipes. He has a website called Forager Chef, and a book coming out in two weeks called The Forager Chef's book of Flora that looks lovely. I mean, how serendipitous to find him - it's everything I want in a food blog: foraging (thus seasonal and local), creative, and looking at various cultural food traditions for inspiration. I can't wait to dive into his website some more - my jaw dropped when I saw his recipe for pollen honey fudge. What?!! Genius. (Especially b/c he uses a little butter to cut the sweetness, which is thumb's up from me.) He even has a post about roadkill. 💕

So, tongue!! I mostly like it - I am interested to try it some more. (I liked it enough that I am drinking the braising broth, which is good cold and a bit like collards/nettle pot liquor meets a light bone broth.) Tongue is slightly pate-like to me, but more firm. Firm the way smoked oysters out of a tin are. I especially liked this marinated tongue on some seed crackers (perhaps sparking the smoked oyster thought), which was super tasty. My salad was good, and modeled after Alan Bergo's video. He used avocado and cooled potatoes (think salad nicoise) and radish. I used cooled jerusalem artichokes and asparagus (steamed and also cooled), and fresh pea pods. Both of us used lettuce and a hard boiled egg. The marinade was very tasty, though I used a bit too many red pepper flakes so the tongue was spicy. I think it is a really nice appetizer (I ate mine for dinner), and I really like the fresh herbs in there. The marinade (with cilantro and mint) made me think of chimichurri, no surprise, which was really nice in this summer heat. I would make this again, except maybe I'd actually just use a chimichurri sauce and serve it on crackers. 

One note: tongue is both the part visually discernable as tongue, but also with some other meaty part. Both tasted good, but differed texture-wise. Also, thankfully Jennifer McLagan menionted that tongues come in all variety of hues, from pink to gray, and some are mottled. One of mine was, and it was weird looking, causing me to wonder. But it's normal. Also, it is normal that 3 out of 4 tongues will peel really easily, and one will be stubborn and require a paring knife. FYI. That was true for me, too.

This is the tongue without other stuff

Braising the Tongue

• 1-1.25 lbs Lamb or Goat Tongue (about 4-8 tongues, depending on size)
• 5 cups chicken stock or water
• 1 each: small carrot ½ small yellow onion and 1 stalk of celery, roughly chopped
• 1 dried bay leaf
• salt

Final Marinade

• ½ cup blend of fresh herbs: parsley, cilantro, mint, tarragon (I used cilantro and mint)
• ½ cup virgin olive oil
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt or more to taste
• Crushed red pepper about ¼ teaspoon, or more to taste (optional)
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 garlic clove lightly crushed with the back of a knife
• lemon zest (opt)

Instructions

• Combine the tongues and ingredients for braising in a high-sided pan, such as a 3 qt sauce pot. Make sure the tongues are covered with water, if they aren’t add a little more water until they’re covered by approximately ½ inch.
• Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook slowly, covered, about 1.5 hours, or until the tongues are tender when pierced.
• When the tongues are tender, take them off the heat and cool in their liquid until you can handle them. Peel with your hand or a paring knife, it will be easier if they’re still warm.
• Trim any excess connective tissue and bits of skin that may be left on if any were resisting being peeled.
• Refrigerate the tongues for a few hours to firm up and make them easy to slice.
• Slice the tongues into ¼ inch slices, then combine with the marinade ingredients. Double check the seasoning and add more salt, vinegar, or crushed red pepper to taste, keeping in mind the seasonings will get stronger as the tongues sit and the flavors meld.
• Transfer the tongues to a container, pressing them down so the vinaigrette and juices cover the top and refrigerate until needed. They're best after marinating for a few hours/overnight. The tongues will keep refrigerated for 4 days. 
  Serve the tongue on crackers, or add some veggies to the marinade and toss it up for salad. I think a little sweetness is a good gesture here (potatoes or jerusalem artichokes, carrots, avocado, peas, asparagus, maybe beets) along with some lettuce and herbs.
  

Spleen, and Pork Belly Rillons (together)

I happened across some fresh pork spleen at the co-op on Friday, and it looked really beautiful and was only $2. I have to say, offal is very affordable in addition to being good for you. I had no idea what to do with spleen so came home and searched my "The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating" and "Odd Bits" cookbooks. Both had good options, but I went for the latter. (I will definitely try the former though, as soon as my sage comes in: Rolled Pig's Spleen with bacon and sage sounds great.)

Spleen rolls and 2 Rillons chunks!

It turns out the spleen is like a very mild liver, really soft and buttery on the inside and tastes more like chicken liver. It comes as one long organ with fat on the inside, and both cookbook recipes were suggesting a long/slow braise of rolled up spleen. McLagan of Odd Bits says her fave way to eat spleen is to cook as Rillons (rillons being chunks of pork belly caramelized on the outside, then cooked in seasoned fat until they are moist and tender on the inside). I happened to also have pork belly, and had tried the rillons recipe one other time but overcooked them. This time they came out perfectly: melt-in-your-mouth goodness. They are higher maintenance than my regular roasted pork belly (which I make at least once or twice a month), but definitely fancier. These would be great dinner party appetizers.

Rillons (with Pork Belly and Spleen)

Rillons before I added the spleen

2 1/4 lbs pork belly (or part pork belly part spleen)
1 T sea salt
2-4 T lard
4 cloves garlic, crushed
4 large sprigs thyme
1 fresh bay leaf
1 tsp smoked paprika
pinch cayenne
1/2 c white wine (or vermouth)
1/2 c water
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Cut the pork belly into equal large cubes about 2 1/2" by the thickness of the belly (about 12 pieces). Place them in a large bowl and sprinkle with salt. Toss together, cover, and refrigerate overnight. *If using spleen, salt the whole thing and refrigerate with belly.

2. Remove pork belly from refrigerator, pat pieces dry. (Spleen will not be browned and can stay in fridge for another hour or so.)
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
4. In a large, heavy frying pan melt 2 T of lard and brown the pieces of belly on all sides; they should get dark and caramelized. (A splatter screen helps here!)
5. Transfer the pieces to a casserole dish/dutch oven just big enough to hold them in a single layer (with room for spleen). Add garlic, thyme, bay leaf, paprika and cayenne. Strain the fat from the frying pan, leaving behind any debris, then pour it over the meat along with the wine and water. Season with pepper. Place in the oven and cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
6. Lower the oven temp to 300 degrees. Check the amount of cooking liquid in the pan: it should be about halfway up the pieces of belly; if it's not, add some of the remaining lard and a little more water if necessary. Cover and return to the oven to cook for another 2 hours until the pieces are very tender; stirring a couple of times. *If using spleen, it cooks for 60-75 minutes. When ready to add, pat spleen dry. Cut into 3-4 pieces crosswise, and roll each piece up, fat side in. Secure with a toothpick and set alongside belly.
7. The rillons can be eaten warm, or set them out to eat at room temp. Refrigerate for up to a week (and eat them on salad, or reheat in a frying pan.) For the spleen: slice each roll into thin slices and eat just like that, or on salad. Yum.

Deer Offal

I have been meaning to write for some time about my appreciation for roadkill deer (and also for My Charming Companion who it seems cannot leave the twin cities metro without coming across one). Now seems to be a nice time - stemming from an amazing dinner last weekend that came to being entirely because there was very little defrosted meat, but there was a fresh deer.  Though the deer still needed to be butchered, the organs were out and ready to go - hence an amazing meal of offal (organ meat) plus a wee bit of kebab.

Offal seems to be pretty popular among foodies and paleo folk (at least according to my internet perusing), but I am still in the experimental phase of offal-eating. Other than occasional chicken liver (in the form of pate), I've only tried a bit of venison brain and eaten heart ground up with burger meat.

Last weekend, though, I had offal trifecta: deer brain, liver, and lung. It felt really fancy - like I should also have been having some bone marrow or something served at some expensive restaurant in a city larger than Minneapolis. The whole meal was delicious, beginning with fried brain and fried liver and bacon, and then a creamy soup of lung and mushrooms, followed by the mini kebabs. (It felt a little like Fogo de Chao gone wild...haha!)

Brain is super delicate - and it is pretty difficult to remove (so I hear, I have not attempted this yet). To prepare it, poach the brain first. Dry it off, then dust it in flour before frying it in coconut oil. It turns out coconut flour does not crisp up in this scenario. It certainly isn't bad, but a GF flour mix, or rice flour will give you the crispy texture on the outside, whereas the coconut flour is more of a "coating" of browned flour. The brain is really tasty - it has a very soft texture, and tastes creamy.

The liver was sliced and tossed in a bit of coconut flour, which worked great here. The slices were fried and then served with bacon pieces - and this was DELICIOUS, probably due to the young tender fawn that the liver came from. Really. I may have shied away from deer liver before, but no more.

Finally the lung. I had never really thought of lung as edible before, but nothing surprises me much anymore. (My Charming Companion is anxiously awaiting enough deer testicles to comprise a serving portion. If testicles, why not lung?!) The lung was much more reddish and red-meat looking than I thought. I imagined it to be pale for some reason. The lungs need to get pounded to remove all the air pockets, and also require some trimming of the trachea and some bigger air vessels. Once that is done, the lung gets poached, and then it is ready to add to whatever dish. We had it in a soup that was chicken stock, portobella mushrooms, some wine, and cream. And a little lemon and salt and pepper. The lung tastes remarkably like a denser mushroom, and it was nice in the soup.

And I guess that doesn't leave much else for deer offal. Kidneys (I have not tried them yet), and the aforementioned testicles...hmmm.

*I realize that I don't give you enough information here to actually make these dishes (or about how to extract them, etc), so if you want to know that, you will have to call My Charming Companion to walk you through it.