If you're one of those people who can't cope with the idea of eating any kind of offal, stop reading now. I love liver but Harvey hates it, so I don't eat it often. We're both keen on kidneys, which is good, because they're cheap, healthy (no fat), delicious, and can be very fast and easy to cook. I made up a good quick kidney dish with bacon and mushrooms recently. We had it for dinner, but it's just as good for weekend brunch. The pictures don't quite match because I've increased the quantity of ingredients to serve two normal appetites, instead of one (me) and less than half of one (Harvey).
6 lamb kidneys
3 large or more smaller rashers of happy pig bacon (Henderson's Dry-cured is good)
6 button mushrooms
2-3 shallots or 1 onion
red wine or brandy
salt and black pepper
beef stock powder
cream
Remove silver skin (if any) from kidneys and cut each into about 6 little pieces, removing the inner hard white bit. Remove stalks from mushrooms and slice. Chop onion or shallots. Cut bacon into smallish pieces.
Heat a heavy frypan and turn it down to medium or less. Gently fry the bacon to melt off some fat. Add the onions or shallots and cook gently until soft. Add the kidneys and brown them gently, turning them over often. Add the mushrooms and cook gently until softened.
Add a good slurp of either red wine or brandy and let it bubble up to reduce a little. Add salt and pepper to taste and a sprinkle of beef stock powder if you think the mixture needs it (you may prefer the milder flavour and paler colour without it). Stir in a good splash of cream and serve piping hot.
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