Warmth in the Bayou

Thanks to this man, chef John Folse, I escaped Toronto's relentless winter for a few days. I met John on his radio show - we talked about fat, then he invited me back and we talked odd bits. We hit it off and he asked me to come to Louisiana to teach a class and lecture about odd bits at his culinary college at Nicholls State University. I said yes without a moment's hesitation.

Tripe Truck

I was excited when I learnt that the Tripe Truck would be in my Paris neighbourhood in November. It was scheduled to be at Montparnasse twice in the same week: Monday and Wednesday. Monday arrived and I jumped on the 58 bus and headed to the station. I walked around and around the square in front of the station - no tripe truck.

Odd Bits Sizzler

Here is a sizzler reel introducing the Odd Bits pilot that was filmed in Toronto this summer.
 Please take a look and let me know what you think either here or, even better add your comment to Youtube and perhaps we might get the chance to make more episodes. And if you have 20 minutes free  you might want to watch the entire pilot here.

Sweetbreads

I love being in Paris for lots of reasons, one of them being the ready availability of offal. In my local market we spied sweetbreads, ris de veau in French. I would like to bust several myths concerning sweetbreads -

 #1 sweetbreads are testicles - they are not. Testicles are testicles. I just read on a blog this week that sweetbreads is another term in English for testicles, it is not! Sweetbread is an old term from the sixteenth century, "sweet" refers to the this odd bits's prized status and bread comes from the Old English word broed meaning flesh. 

#2 sweetbreads include the pancreas - they do not. Unfortunately, in North America the pancreas is often sold as a sweetbread, even by butchers who should know better.

Sweetbreads are the thymus gland which consists of two parts, the throat sweetbread and the heart sweetbread. They are only found in young animals as the animal ages the thymus gland atrophies, which explains why sweetbreads are in short supply and expensive.

The sweetbreads in my market were the desirable veal heart sweetbreads, bigger and more compact. 

The first step is to soak the sweetbread in cold salted water. Then poach it in a court bouillon, a fancy name for a liquid flavoured with vegetables, herbs and spices, see Odd Bits. This takes about 5 to 15 minutes depending on the size of the sweetbread. Test by pressing with your finger tip, they should be firm but still springy. You can see that the sweetbread becomes more compact. Slide the sweetbread into ice water to stop the cooking. When it is just cool enough to handle, remove any fat, gristle and as much of the membrane as you can.

Place the sweetbread in a pie dish lined with a clean towel, fold the cloth over the sweetbread and place another pie plate on top. Add a weight to lightly press the sweetbread and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours to firm up. Normally my sweetbread would fall into small pieces as I usually only find the throat ones in Toronto. The heart sweetbread stays intact so I decided to sauté it whole. I seasoned it with salt and pepper, browned it gently in butter turning and basting until it had a good colour, but was still springy, about 12 minutes.

You could add a sauce, but when the sweetbread is this good it needs nothing else at all.

Group of 7 Odd Bits Dinner

I've been looking forward to this night, since Scott from Beast and Matty from Parts and Labour first suggested it. As members of the Group of 7 Chefs they thought an Odd Bits dinner would be fun and a way to help them raise money for their trip to New York to cook at the James Beard House later this year. Importantly it would be a way for offal lovers and neophytes to try a range of dishes not often found on restaurant menus. All seven chefs picked an odd bit and created a dish. The list was bone and tendon, lamb kidneys, lamb tripe, tongue and testicles, pork heart, veal brain and pork blood.

Odd Bits Dinner in Waterloo

Last night I was at Nick and Nat's Uptown 21 in Waterloo. I met Nick last year at Savour Stratford, when we were both judging the Best Chef competition. Nick asked if I would participate in a cookbook dinner at his restaurant sponsored by the local bookstore Wordsworth Books. I said yes,  Nick had told me he loved my Fat book, authors always fall for flattery. Also I love this type of event, the chef does all the work and I have time to meet people who like my books and I can continue my mission of convincing people to try odd bits. Nick made my food shine and alas my photography doesn't do it justice - I had a camera incident - my flash had a mind of its own deciding when it would and wouldn't work, but I've posted the snaps anyway.

Something to watch

I'm off to Kitchener/Waterloo for an interview with Daiene Vernile at CTV Provincewide and then on to the Odd Bits dinner at Nick & Nat's Uptown 21, tonight. The menu includes testicles and chocolate blood ice cream, a full report soon.

In the meantime you can watch my conversation with Alison Fryer at the Cookbook Store in Toronto.

Tasty Odd Bits

You'd think I'd eaten enough odd bits over the last couple of years while working on my book Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal, but when my husband suggested we go to Le Ribouldingue for dinner I said yes straight away. How could I not return to the restaurant that introduced me to cow's udder and testicles?

Bollocks!

Do you recognize this piece of animal anatomy? Well I admit that it's pretty new addition to my repertoire. I'll give you a hint  - it's one of a pair and it used to belong to a ram. Yes, it is a sheep's testicle. When I ate these in Paris over a year ago I promised some photos and more information. I keep my promises even if it takes more than a year - sorry I was waylaid.  Last weekend I was testing recipes for my next book and testicles were on the list so here are some thoughts.