Kidneys au Vin Blanc

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 5 lamb's kidneys, sliced, with the middle parts removed
• 3 tbsp flour
• salt and pepper
• 2 oz. mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tsp fresh chopped herbs (we used parsley and Italian seasoning)
• 2/3 cup white wine
• 2/3 cup chicken stock
• 3 large tomatoes, skinned, quartered, and seeded
• croutons to garnish

To skin the tomatoes, we blanched them in boiling water for about 30 seconds and then dumped them in an ice bath. The skin came off very easily.
I can't really tell you the best way to prepare kidneys. I didn't know there would be weird tubes and shit on the inside, but there were, and there seemed to be no good way to extricate them. I ended up butchering them pretty bad, as it were. But the preparation doesn't really matter, I don't think. As long as you can remove the middle part, you're good to go.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the onion and garlic. Cook until the onion is translucent. Add the mangled kidneys and fry until lightly browned. Don't overcook them! They will get rubbery.
Remove the pan from heat and stir in the flour, herbs, stock, wine, mushrooms, salt, and pepper.
Bring to a boil and simmer for 8-10 minutes.
Add the quartered tomatoes and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Serve garnished with croutons.

Thoughts: Weird. I feel pretty ambivalent about this recipe. I mean, if you like kidneys, this is a great recipe. The flavor was great and the preparation was super easy. If, however, you've never had kidneys before (like me), I don't know if I can recommend this recipe. Kidneys have a very strong flavor and a texture that's sort of similar to mushrooms. The rest of the recipe was really good, but I'll admit that the kidneys squicked me out. If we were to make this recipe again, I think we would lose the tomatoes. They didn't add much. Dan says the recipe was really weird and that he probably wouldn't make it again. He objected to the scent of uric acid that emanated from the kidneys. But, on the other hand, they were very tender. Maybe because they came from lambs and not sheep.

Disaster Index: This is difficult. I would give it a 1-2/10, but we would never make it again. If you like kidneys, I highly recommend this recipe. Otherwise, don't worry about it.

Edit: Three weeks out and I can still remember exactly what these kidneys tasted like. Very MEMORABLE.