Lambs' kidneys villandry
Yield: 4 Servings S
Ingredients:
- 8 Lamb Kidneys
- 200 g Minced pork or chicken
- 1 sm Egg yolk
- 1 pn Quatre-epices
- 200 g Pate de foie
- 4 Rashers bacon
- 100 ml Brandy
- 100 ml Creme fraiche
Instructions:
This is a slightly simplified version of a recipe from the bible of French cookery Cuisine et vins de France by Curnonsky the French gastronome and bon viveur born in 1872. Skin 8 lambs' kidneys split them in half and core keeping the halves in pairs. Mix 200 g minced pork or chicken with 1 small egg yolk and a pinch of quatre-epices (nutmeg cloves cinnamon and pepper). Have ready 200 g pate de foie. Remove rinds from 4 rashers of bacon and cut them in half. Take each pair of kidney halves and put a thick layer (about 1 cm) of the mince mixture on the inside of one half and a thick layer of the pate de foie on the other. Sandwich the stuffed halves together gently wrap in half a bacon rasher and secure with one or more toothpicks. Lay the bacon and kidney parcels in a lightly oiled dish which can go from oven to top of the stove and bake in a very hot oven for 10-20 minutes or until cooked through. Transfer the parcels to a heated serving dish and put the baking dish on a hot plate. Deglaze the dish With 100 mL brandy and boil hard to reduce. Thicken with 100 mL creme fraiche or sour cream (or use evaporated skim milk mixed with a little cornflour) taste and season if necessary and pour over the kidneys. Serve. Posted by Stephen Ceideburg From an article by Meryl Constance in The Sydney Morning Herald 6/22/93. Courtesy Mark Herron.
