Recently I have noticed Lambs Hearts readily avail in butchers. Any good recipie ideas for them?

Answer 1

Lamb Heart Casserole

Ingredients
2 pounds of lamb hearts, diced into ½-inch cubes
¼ pound of salt pork, par-boiled 5 minutes and diced into ½-inch cubes (optional)
1 cup beef stock
1 cup burgundy wine (or grape juice)
1 bouquet garni
½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 carrot, grated
2 Tablespoons butter
1 cup pearl onions
½ pound mushroom caps
2 carrots, cut into chunks
1 cup fresh Peas (or canned)
¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish.
Bouquet garni
2 sprigs parsley
¼ teaspoon thyme
1 bay leaf

Wrap the bouquet garni herbs in cheesecloth, tied tightly. Other herbs that could be substituted include chervil, tarragon, rosemary, and basil.

Remove the arteries and excess fat from the heart.

If using the salt pork, heat in a medium-sized pot, stirring occasionally and sauté lightly until the fat is rendered. (about 2 Tablespoons). Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add the diced heart and sauté until golden on all sides. Add salt pork, stock, wine, bouquet garni, grated carrot and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for about 1½ hours.

Melt butter in a skillet and sauté onions, mushrooms and carrot chunks for about 5 minutes. Add to the pot and continue cooking for about 20 minutes longer.

During the last 5 minutes of cooking, add the peas. Remove the bouquet garni and garnish the dish with parsley.

Serve over buttered noodles or rice. A green salad, French bread, and a fine Burgundy are good accompaniements

Answer 2

I used to cook them years ago when I was a poor student. I did it wrong, though, but I've come across interesting recipes since.

Basically you have to braise them for a long time, so here's a recipe off the top of my head. Clean them thoroughly, cut off excess fat if any, then fry up some finely chopped onion, celery and carrot in olive oil until soft. Remove chopped veg from pan, add a bit more oil if the pan is looking dry, then brown your heart or hearts in the hot oil. Put the chopped veg back in, then add some crushed coriander and cumin seeds and fry them off a little, then add two or three crushed garlic cloves. Don't let the garlic burn, but quickly add a glassful of white wine and let it reduce to half. When it's done so, add enough chicken/vegetable stock to cover (you can use concentrated or powdered stock, let's not go nuts) plus a tin of chopped tomatoes and a bay leaf. Add a little chilli powder, only a tiny pinch, if you want a bit of extra heat.

Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat so it's barely simmering. Cover loosely and cook for not less than an hour and a half, preferably two hours, until you can easily stick a skewer or sharp knife in the hearts (until they feel tender, in other words.) Remove the hearts from the sauce, slice them into half-inch-thick slices, and return to the sauce. Check seasoning and serve with buttered couscous and lots of green salad. If you throw in some chopped apricots you could call it a sort of modified lamb-heart tagine.

If you use M&S chicken stock or Marigold stock powder, this should be really cheap. If you slice the hearts really cleverly, your guests might not even realise what they're eating.

Answer 3

When I was a chef I treated them like either stewing meat, as a stuffing media, ground to add to a doner kabab and braised whole and sliced like a pot roast.

Lamb hearts are very tender, when you get into larger pieces like cows and pork they tend to need a bit more cooking, there not tough just need more time for them to get tender.

Even using them for a filler in lamb burgers, I like them as an alternative to hamburgers, even in meatballs for a different taste and texture.

Answer 4

My Mum used to cook them the same as Mad -delicious. Maybe a bit of stock in a covered oven dish to stop them getting too dry?

Answer 5

My Mum used to cook these for us when we were kids - she would stuff them with sage and onion stuffing, then bake them in the oven - I'm not sure about time and temp, but I'd guess an hour at 180 C - they were quite delicious!

Answer 6

I have never eaten them but my wee dog used to go crazy for them. We boiled them for around 20 mins, let them cool down, sliced into wee bits and gave him them with some of the water that they had been boiled in. It was one of the few things that he ate that was followed by a huge "roly poly" session on the kitchen carpet. Yummmmm.