Devilled Kidneys

A UK dish in its heyday in the nineteenth century as a breakfast, often in gentlemens clubs.

Kidney (about 270g), butter, spelt flour, mustard, Worcester sauce, red currant sauce, white pepper, tomato puree, and one medium onion.

Made in this case with beef kidney. Chop the kidney into chunks, removing the white tissue with a sharp knife or kitchen scissors. Add two teaspoonfuls of the flour to a freezer bag, along with the Worcester sauce (four dashes), mustard (teaspoonful), white pepper, and the red currant sauce (half teaspoonful). Add the kidney pieces to the bag, seal, and shake and manipulate the bag until all the chunks are evenly covered in the mixture.

Heat a pan with two knobs of butter. Chop the onion and fry for five minutes at a medium heat. Add the kidney chunks, and stir fry for four minutes, stirring frequently. Add about 75g of boiling water, along with two squeezes of tomato puree. Cook for ten to twelve minutes until the gravy thickens, stirring every thirty seconds.

Serve with toast or potato bread (illustrated here with a toasted panini), dressed with a sprinkling of parsley (optional).

Chicken and Sausage Meat Stuffing, with Roast Potatoes

Roast potatoes, chicken breast, a sausage meat stuffing, carrots, brussels sprouts, sausages wrapped in bacon (pigs in blankets), cranberry sauce, and a delicious gravy made with chicken stock, sage, thyme, rosemary, onion, spring onion, and red currant sauce. 

This meal was largely created in two sessions on the preceding day. The gravy and the potatoes were prepared first. The onions were added to a mixture of cornflour and water. Heated until it began to thicken. Cooked for half an hour, stirring regularly (don't take your eyes off it). The potatoes were parboiled for fifteen minutes, then decanted into a glass bowl and allowed to cool. Four dessert spoonfuls of goose fat (sunflower oil will do just as well) were drizzled across the potatoes. With a plate sealing the glass bowl, the potatoes were shaken around vigorously, until fluffy. Then placed in the oven on the middle shelf at around 160 deg C, and cooked until a golden colour. Turn two or three times.The stuffing was commercially bought, but is essentially made with (usually pork) sausage meat and stale breadcrumbs, plus generous amounts of sage. Rolled oats or oatmeal can be substituted, and sometimes it is given extra physical integrity by adding an egg during the mixing of the ingredients. 

Unless very thick, the stuffing should roast in twenty minutes at 180 deg. C. Watch this one closely too!

The chicken was in the form of a crown (both breasts), and was cooked for 70 minutes at 180 deg C, and turned two times during the process, with the juices spooned over the top. Covered with aluminium foil for 65 of those minutes. The chicken was allowed to rest before carving, and reheated in the microwave on the day. You could reheat in a steamer instead.

  

Finally the brussels sprouts were cooked for nine minutes in boiling water, and the carrots for twenty.