Offally Good Cooking

Actually cooking organ meats week after week

Janine Farzin

Sweetbreads with tomatoes and peas – celebrating its half birthday!

By Leave a Comment

Sweetbreads are so simple and elegant, they will pick up the flavors of anything you cook with them.  Leave it to Marcella Hazan to pair with butter and sweet peas; this recipe is adapted from her original in Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.

Sweetbreads with tomatoes and peas is truly a summer dish – when fresh shelled peas and tomatoes are weighing down my bags at the farmer’s market.  But somehow, on it’s half birthday, I realized that it was a bit Christmas-y, too!  And besides, despite my devotion to eating seasonally, canned tomatoes and frozen peas are pretty universal in our home.

I think that this dish is perfect with rice and a salad.  In the summer, use the rice as a vehicle for broth.  In the winter, a steaming cup to precede your meal would be lovely.  Happy holidays!…

Read More

Deviled Kidneys (and Other Innards) for Breakfast

By 1 Comment

Deviled Kidneys with Leftover Brussel Sprouts and Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Fergus Henderson has a recipe for Deviled Kidneys in his book, The Whole Beast. He introduces it as “The perfect breakfast on your birthday, with a glass of Black Velvet (half Guiness and half Champagne).”  If this dish is good enough for a birthday breakfast, it was definitely something we needed to try.  And wait, did that say breakfast? Should we be eating kidney for breakfast?! Yes, we should.  See, it says ‘breakfast’ right there in the book.

…

Read More

Liver Tonic, a high-octane Bloody Mary

By 7 Comments

“Tonic, noun, 1. a medicinal substance taken to give a feeling of vigor…  Adjective, 1. giving a feeling of vigor or well-being; invigorating.”

The Bloody Mary has always been known as a cure for a variety of ailments.  The tomato juice alone is probably the key element, as it is rich in vitamins and minerals.  Most notably, these include vitamin C, the antioxidant lycopene, and the electrolytes potassium and sodium.  However, with the Bloody Mary, there is always the risk of letting the cure become the cause.

To avoid any risk and maximize benefits, we skip the vodka and add raw grated liver.  And there you have it, near and dear to my heart: the Liver Tonic.

…

Read More

Italian liver piccata and how I learned to love liver

By 4 Comments

It wasn’t always this way.  In the beginning, I had to force myself to finish a serving of liver.  Week after week, I’d lovingly prepare this Italian Liver Piccata (adapted from Marcella Hazan in Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking), if not with some trepidation.  Then I would serve it with confidence – if not a ‘fake it til you make it’ kind of confidence – to my family.

I had learned that organ meats are the foundation of a healthful diet, with liver being the most important.  And I wanted a healthy family.  But I didn’t grow up eating organ meats, and my mom had not said kind things about her own experience.  Yet, my 100-year old grandmother (my best barometer of ‘food’ and food quality) served liver every week and still loves it.  I knew it was the best way to fortify myself and my family; I had to get on board.

Here’s how it would go down:

…

Read More

Menudo: Mexican tripe soup, or affectionately, cow’s stomach soup

By 5 Comments

Even though I have a savory palate and wouldn’t mind soup most mornings for breakfast (especially through winter), the kids don’t love that idea.  In fact, I would say that they don’t even like that idea.  Unless, of course, it is menudo, Mexican tripe soup, as adapted from Rick Bayless in Authentic Mexican Cooking – affectionately known around our place as ‘cow’s stomach soup.’

…

Read More

Vietnamese pho – (raw) beef and noodle soup

By 4 Comments

On Thursday nights we eat raw meat at home.  “Hmm,” you might be thinking.  It might sound exotic, or a bit scary, but it’s really no big thing.  Steak tartar, carpaccio, a lot of ceviche in the summer.  A pretty (ok, very) rare steak.  “Oh right…” Maybe it’s not something you would usually eat, but not so strange.  As it turns out, the kids are like little wild animals around this stuff.  If you don’t move quick, you won’t get any.  I think there is something to be said for that.

I never realized that Vietnamese beef pho was in this category, but it was a happy discovery.

…

Read More

Chicken liver tacos & why I love Rick Bayless

By 3 Comments

This recipe moves me from eating chicken liver because I should to eating it because it’s awesome.  I’m not the only one.  My oldest son asked for these for his birthday this past year.

It’s inspired by the Azadura con Salsa Verde (innards in green sauce) recipe in Authentic Mexican Cooking by Rick Bayless.  I confess that I love it so much I left a sort of love letter of appreciation at one of his restaurants last year, hoping that it might find him.

…

Read More

Organ meats as an alternative to marijuana?

By Leave a Comment

Fat-soluble vitamins available in organ meats activate the same cannabinoid receptors as active compounds in marijuana. Is this a good alternative?

Background

I recently read an article titled The Pursuit of Happiness by Chris Masterjohn.  He’s an academic researcher and his work elaborates on the importance of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and K.  In this article, he explains how vitamins A and D, along with arachidonic acid are precursors to the internal production of endocannabinoids.  The endocannabinoids are the natural compounds that activate the cannabinoid receptors.

These receptors are responsible for the regulation of both dopamine (needed for long-term goal-oriented behavior) and cortisol (the stress hormone).  As he notes, “by curbing the excess production of cortisol and supporting adequate production of dopamine, endocannabinoids help prevent excess tension, anxiety, burnout, and feelings of self-defeat and help support the confrontation of challenges with the attitudes necessary for success.”…

Read More