I like organ meats.
All the weird-ass “specialty meats” in the cooler at the supermarket (or the butcher shop, if you’re so lucky as to have one of them) tend to have no bones, tons of usable muscle, and low prices because of the “ew, squicky” factor. They usually taste very good, and are only cheap because of the squick factor—which bothers me not at all.
Tonight’s recipe is one of those, arising from the meat counter at one of my preferred Oriental markets. Asian cuisines, particularly Chinese and Southeast Asian, tend to have a lot of “delicacies” that come down to “we learned how to make leftovers and rejects taste good ’cos some rich bastard got all the good bits.”
(The infamous Scottish Haggis is in the same line of country; sheep heart, liver, and lights (lungs), cooked with cheap oats and barley, ’cos the English ran off with all the nice roasts and chops and such.)
Heart, which I used today, is nothing BUT muscle. No bones, small amount of connective tissue … so much usable meat it ain’t funny, price at $2.00 a pound … just don’t think about exactly what it is. (Or do think about it and eat it anyway; I ain’t your dad.)
Like any muscle that gets a lot of work, heart needs a lot of cooking to tender it up, which makes it a great candidate for braising and a slow cooker. I cannot recommend this highly enough for a next-day pasta main dish dinner.
Slow Cooker Braised Pork Hearts
Recipe By : Sam Waring
Serving Size : 6 Preparation Time :1:00
Categories : Pork, Crockpot
Amount Measure Ingredients — Preparation Method ———————— ———————————— ———————————————————————————————— 3 pounds Pork heart, trimmed of outer fat, arteries, and inner connective tissue 8 slices Diced bacon ½ pound Sliced fresh mushrooms 1 Diced yellow onion ½ tablespoon Dried thyme 4 tablespoons Olive oil 2 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard ¼ teaspoon Dried basil ¼ cup Red vermouth 1 packet Goya ham flavour granules 2 cups Boiling water 3 Minced garlic cloves Fresh herbs of your choice 2 tablespoons Cornstarch 1 tablespoon Sriracha
Trim the hearts, removing any connective tissue and the outer layers of fat as they are not palatable.Split open the heart and remove any inner connective tissue as well from the chambers. You can use a meat mallet or a chicken-fried steak tool to tenderize the hearts at this point (strongly recommended), which also lets the cooking juices penetrate the muscle more thoroughly.
Soak the hearts in a bowl of cold salted water for 30 minutes to an hour (this process not only cleans them, but brines them as well for good flavour).
Towards the end of brining, fry the bacon in a large skillet until it is crisp. (Personally, I keep a bag of already-cooked baked bacon in the freezer for occasions like this. It’s a magnificent solution to having cooked bacon always ready for anything, baking gives you slices that are very evenly cooked, and you get a lot of very good bacon dripping in the roasting pan to use in other dishes. Takes ten seconds per slice in the microwave to thaw and be ready for use.)
Sauté the onion, mushrooms, and dried thyme for five minutes or so until onions and mushrooms are tender.
Remove hearts from the salt water and pat dry.
Slice the hearts into half-inch wide strips. At this point you can dredge them in seasoned flour and sauté in a large, very hot skillet for three or four minutes to brown. This is optional, though.
Create a vinaigrette by whisking together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, and dried basil.
Place the heart strips in a slow cooker and pour the vinaigrette over them.
Dissolve the Goya ham granules in boiling water. Add to the cooker along with the vermouth and beef broth.
Add minced garlic right on top of heart and lastly, the fresh herbs tied in a bouquet garni.
Set the slow cooker on high and cook for one hour, then turn the cooker to low and cook an addtional 7 to 9 hours (overnight is ideal for this).
The next day, strain the solids and decant the liquids into a two-quart saucepan. Allow the cooking liquid to cool completely. Take a cup of the cold liquid and whisk in the cornstarch. Add back to the pan and whisk together. Bring to a simmer until the sauce thickens. Add the sriracha and stir to combine. Pour the sauce back over the heart strips and other bits and give a stir.
Serve over wide pasta or rice.
Start to Finish Time: 8 hours or overnight
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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 378 Calories; 20g Fat (49.9% calories from fat); 37g Protein; 9g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 265mg Cholesterol; 483mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 5 Lean Meat; ½ Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 2;½ Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
This was amazingly good, sorta like Swedish meatballs or stroganoff but a trifle chewier. It is easy, needs little attention, and tastes really wow. I say try it. (If you don’t want to run out to the Oriental supermarket for pork hearts, most supermarkets have beef hearts, which will work too.)
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