300g lamb’s sweetbreads
the juice of one lemon
salt and freshly ground black pepper
150 grams bacon
1 teaspoon unsalted butter
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 beaten egg OR 50 ml double cream
flour for dredging
125 ml Madeira
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
First soak the sweetbreads for about an hour in enough cold water to
cover them completely. Then drain, rinse and repeat, for at least
another hour or until you’re ready to cook them. Drain the sweetbreads and dry them well, then in a saucepan cover
them with more cold water. Add a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon
juice, then bring the pan to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain the sweetbreads and plunge them into ice water. Leave them to cool. In a dry pan, fry off the lardons until they’re crispy and golden.
While they’re cooking, peel the membranes off the cooled sweetbreads.
Then dredge them in the egg or cream, and then some seasoned flour. When the bacon’s cooked, remove it from the pan and set aside. Then
melt the oil and butter in the pan and gently fry the sweetbreads until
they’re golden and crispy. Set aside. Deglaze the pan with the Madeira, bubbling it up to cook out the
alcohol and scraping up the cooking residues. Add the juice of half a
lemon and the cayenne, followed by the other teaspoon of butter. Stir
together until the butter has melted. Serve the sweetbreads with a watercress and lamb’s lettuce salad,
with the sauce drizzled around them and the lardons scattered on top,
and some crusty French bread to mop up the juices.
bacon recipe courtesy of: Kay Plunkett-Hogge, Kay Cooks, London, UK
