"Do your yoga friends know you eat brains and thymus glands and crazy stuff like that?" He asks popping a crispy morsel in his mouth after expertly swiping it through sauce...
"Um, no, how's the new dish?" I ask with arms folded and one eyebrow raised.
"Clean. Crispy. Sauce is tasty. Great starter with champagne – is there champagne?"
(Hmmm...maybe he's okay after all...)
What is a pomelo? It's like a grapefruit on steroids but sweeter without the bitter aftertaste. Be forewarned the pith is about an inch thick. Veal sweetbreads are the thymus gland.They have a mild flavor with a slightly spongy interior. Cooked correctly they should melt in your mouth.
I found out how delicious sweetbreads were only after I started cooking them professionally.
During a promotional photo shoot for Guy Savoy's website inbetween my cooking shifts, Guy himself sent me his ris de veau dish as a present (from my meat station, nonetheless). I couldn't very well send them back – they were covered in truffles! Total life changing experience. There is something to be said for tasting your food.
I am picky about how they should be cooked and prepared. I like 'em extra crispy on the outside and tender inside. I do not like them roasted – too mushy for my taste.
Here's the technique: soak the glands in ice water for at least three hours to draw out any impurities, changing the water twice. Blanch sweetbreads in a pot of simmering salted water for 45 seconds then shock in ice water to stop the cooking. Peel off the thin membrane that surrounds the gland. Cut into nice bite size pieces about 65g each. Store morsels wrapped in a slightly damp kitchen towel in the refrigerator until ready to cook.
Season morsels with sea salt and sear in a cast iron pan with salted butter continuously basting. Add more salted butter to the pan when remaining butter begins to brown. Baste, baste, baste. The sweetbreads are done when they are brown on all sides.
For extra crispiness: drain sweetbreads on a paper towel when golden brown then cook one more time before serving in the same way.
The sauce is simply a reduction of veal stock and pomelo juice squeezed from the pith after segmenting. I finished the sauce with a little butter for a gloss. Easy! Place pomelo segments around sweetbread morsels and garnish with micro herbs and chives.
It was very nice of Guy Savoy to give you that truffle dish garnished with sweetbreads.
Me, I love sweetbreads. Most everyone else I know, they scream. The recipe sounds great and I wish I had this rather than lettuce wraps.
Is that mizuna you used as garnish?
Posted by: wattacetti | January 27, 2012 at 10:44 AM
That little present also consisted of six other dishes each paired with wine – good wine. I came back in to start dinner service and my boss made me clean the meat station top to bottom to "work off" the extra calories. As if cooking two services a day and two family meals a day isn't enough! Oh, those were fun times...
Yes, I would take them over lettuce wraps. Not quite in the same league lol. And that's mizuna from my garden...
Posted by: Ms. Glaze | January 27, 2012 at 11:54 AM
and Maldon Salt...
Posted by: Ms. Glaze | January 27, 2012 at 11:55 AM
Wow - I can get mizuna perhaps 3-4 times during the entire summer (there's only one grower) but I'm going to see about setting up a pot and grow some myself. I have to get some Maldon salt (I'm out).
I guess the sous-chef didn't like that you got the light snack with wine pairings (were his eyes green?). But it does sound like it was a great tasting session to say the least.
I've seen the GS wine list. Is there even anything that might even be considered "average" on it?
Posted by: wattacetti | January 27, 2012 at 05:48 PM
Me Glaze! I will have to try your"totally life changing experience" at Guy Savoy. John
Posted by: john | January 28, 2012 at 06:24 AM
Yum, this all sounds so tasty, (even now at the breakfast hour.) Thymus glands, huh?! Okay... after reading this, I'm game! Sounds delicious.
Go Missy, once again!
Posted by: kate | January 28, 2012 at 10:27 AM
I'm in! Well, I wish, anyway. I honestly don't know if I've eaten sweetbreads before. If I did it was when we lived on the ranch and butchered our own steer and whether (castrated lamb) every year. We would swap some of our cache of frozen proteins with an uncle who raised pigs. We were very much against waste in my family, and I know we ate all sorts of other offal, so chances are I've eaten it and just didn't exactly know what it was.
Posted by: Calichef | January 30, 2012 at 08:53 PM
Hi Amy:
As someone who's been loving your blog since your Blue Ribbon days in Paris, I'm a bit confused: Where are you based right now?
Are you back in Paris with Guy Savoy? Or in Vegas with Guy Savoy?
Please orient your long-time readers! Thanks!
Posted by: wetsteint | January 31, 2012 at 06:27 AM
Hi Wetsteint! I'm sorry for the confusion, I often bounce back to old memories without clue-ing in the reader. I'm in San Francisco now working on a Farm just outside the city as resident Chef. I made a few stops after Paris. One in New York cooking for a few years at Le Bernardin and then a second in SF.
Pescadero, where I am now, is a community that I'm deeply attached to and have been all my life. It's a unique coastal community with lots of homestead farms (produce and meat) and a few cheese makers. Sort of heaven on earth – at least to me!
CaliChef! – So good to hear from you! And I am sure you have eaten sweetbreads! Especially given your background. My Dad used to make them for me as a kid and I didn't realize it until recently what they were. They were popular once and now they seem to frighten people away. Considering the ranch life, I think you must have come across them. My Dad (who grew up on a farm in Ohio) liked liver and tongue and all those things and they were more readily available in markets too. Now they are sort of an oddity?!?
Posted by: Ms. Glaze | January 31, 2012 at 10:39 AM