The Brains of the Outfit

So brains right? Some came in my Flesh Box this week.  I was very excited.  What could be better than 6 bio-dynamic fresh lambs brains... Apparently, as far as my family are concerned a lot...

Upon thinking about how to serve these treats I turned to my Mum as Dad is a big fan.  "Mum, how do you do brains for Dad?" She explained she first poached them and then crumbed and shallow fried them so I thought I'd give that a go.
 
First I soaked them in salty water (I covered the bowl with tin foil so himself did not stumble across them in the sink).  I did show the wee girl, she was very excited to try them.

I then wrapped them up in little tinfoil bonbons (advice from Maggie Beer) and poached in water with bay, peppercorns and a dash of vinegar.  Took them out and left them in their little wrappers and put in the fridge for a while to firm up.  Then I crumbed in panko crumbs and shallow fried until golden.  They ended up looking like lovely little croquets.

So I served four of these morsels on a plate each with tomato and HP sauces on the table.  Before himself tried any I warned him it was brains.  OHMIGOD the revolt.  He would not try any, point blank.  Said he'd tried them (black market brains no less) in the UK in a curry and hated the texture then and WOULD NOT eat them now and sat there sulking.

The wee girl was more game but the first mouthful produced some fairly spectacular results.  Apparently the texture was a bit much for her... She heaved, her eyes watered and she finally, valiently swallowed.  I asked her if it was the flavour? No, she assured me, not the flavour but the very, very funky texture. She managed to finish the first one with only a bit more retching then moved onto the second one.  This one, like the first produced enough spectacular heaving and eye watering that she gave it up.  I was so impressed with her though, she tried so hard to like them!

I have to say - I quite enjoyed them :-) The texture WAS funky, but kinda cool too... I didn't manage to finish all four pieces but found the whole experience (including the family antics) very enjoyable indeed...

:-)

Oh, and I made butter too, today.  Realised there was none in the fridge but there was cream; and I couldn't be bothered going down the road just before breakfast.  So I added a bit of salt and wizzed with a wizzer until after a while it turned quiet yellow and looked separated.  I then put the whole lot in muslin and squeezed all the whey out and voila! butter.  The wee girl was very impressed with this magic and demanded all our butter from now on be hand made... I think not.