Recipe - Lambs Kidneys Villandry

Stephen Ceideburg
8 Lamb Kidneys
200 g Minced pork or chicken
1 small Egg yolk
1 pn Quatreepices
200 g Pate de foie
4 Rashers bacon
100 ml Brandy
100 ml Creme fraiche

This is a slightly simplified version of a recipe from the bible of French
cookery, Cuisine et vins de France, by Curnonsky, the French gastronome and
bon viveur born in 1872.

Skin 8 lambs' kidneys, split them in half and core, keeping the halves in
pairs.

Mix 200 g minced pork or chicken with 1 small egg yolk, and a pinch of
quatreepices (nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and pepper). Have ready 200 g pate
de foie. Remove rinds from 4 rashers of bacon and cut them in half.

Take each pair of kidney halves and put a thick layer (about 1 cm) of the
mince mixture on the inside of one half and a thick layer of the pate de
foie on the other. Sandwich the stuffed halves together gently, wrap in
half a bacon rasher and secure with one or more toothpicks. Lay the bacon
and kidney parcels in a lightly oiled dish which can go from oven to top of
the stove and bake in a very hot oven for 1020 minutes or until cooked
through.

Transfer the parcels to a heated serving dish and put the baking dish on a
hot plate. Deglaze the dish With 100 mL brandy and boil hard to reduce.
Thicken with 100 mL creme fraiche or sour cream (or use evaporated skim
milk mixed with a little cornflour), taste and season if necessary and pour
over the kidneys. Serve.

Posted by Stephen Ceideburg

From an article by Meryl Constance in The Sydney Morning Herald, 6/22/93.
Courtesy Mark Herron.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini