Name: Grilled lamb kidneys with white-bean purée, wilted rocket, merlot jus and summer herb oil
Yield: Serves 8
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 500 ml stock (ideally this should be lamb stock, but you can use beef or chicken); 1 litre merlot; 100 g butter; 150 ml cream; 1 bouquet garni; 2 garlic cloves, crushed with the skin on; 100 ml port; 1 celery stalk; 2 cloves (push these into the raw onion); 1 onion; 1 large carrot, peeled; 500 g large white beans, dried; 32 lamb kidneys (these are usually small, so allow 4 per person - about 200 g in total for each person. If they are larger, use fewer); Herb oil: see BASICS; 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

Preparation info

Serves
8

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Feast

By Franck Dangereux

Published 2004

About

Make this oil in the summer months when the herbs are fresh and full of flavour.

The older generation understands offal, but the perception of eating an animal has changed and become sanitised. This is unfortunate. I was brought up to have respect for the slaughtered animal, and respect meant using every single part of that animal. If a pig was slaughtered on a farm, every part would be eaten, and those that weren’t would be put to some other use, such as brushes made from the hair.