Whole30 Day 6 Offal Heart!

Offal not awful! A month ago, Hess and I double dated with some of our foodie friends to a local top restaurant in Portland. Our appetizer: sliced beef tongue salad with herbs and sweetbread croutons. It was the first time Hess really enjoyed organs and kept saying "we need to find out how to make these!" So this round of Whole30 we are trying to cook with more organ meat and utilize more parts of the animal for our meals.

What we have found out is that certain organ meats are difficult to find. It wasn't until a trip to Whole Foods that we were able to find beef liver by the pound. I love liver and have made my own pate, mixed it into chili and stew. I asked at every grocery store I went to, local markets and made calls to the butchers in town and the only thing I could not find was heart. We were finally able to find a large beef heart, grass fed status is unknown, for less than a dollar a pound in a small butcher outside of town.

So excited for the find! It was huge!

The first thing Hess wanted to do was make meatloaf and I wanted to make chili. Then we realized, we have no idea how to cook this thing! And of course, thank goodness for the internet.

After several searches I found Michael Ruhlman's blog with a handy how to and a delicious recipe for grilled heart on arugula. Ruhlman has a quick how to break down and trim the heart down and it really is just a beautiful piece of meat. The salad is next on the list.

While we search for more recipes, we have decided to divide the heart in half and start with a chili and will be grinding up the other half for meatloaf- it's a compromise. Obviously there are so many things you can do with organ meat, I hadn't even thought about a salad! I am literally just about to start breaking this down and can't be more excited- kid with a new toy. Recipes for how we prepare this beast will be posted later!

Tip for the Day: Try something new! You never know if you don't like it until you try it! Sweetbreads may be next on our dinner table...