CookEat Recipe
Fried Sweetbreads Montebello
Butter-fried breaded sweetbreads with lemon, parsley and a tomato Béarnaise sauce.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Have a butcher clean and neatly trim six fresh raw calf heart sweetbreads. Soak in cold drinking water for two hours in the refrigerator at 40°F or colder, changing the water three times. While they soak, make the tomato sauce.
Step 2
For the tomato sauce, dice the four ounces lean raw ham, slice two carrots and two onions, and chop one leek, two parsley branches, one celery branch, one green pepper and one garlic clove. Melt two ounces butter in a large saucepan. Add the ham and these vegetables with two cloves, one teaspoon whole peppercorns, half a bay-leaf sprig, half a thyme sprig, one tablespoon salt and one light tablespoon icing sugar. Cook over brisk heat for about twelve minutes, stirring, until lightly browned.
Step 3
Stir the four tablespoons flour into the sauce pan and cook for five minutes. Add the two quarts fresh ripe red tomatoes cut into quarters and one quart cold water. Mix, cover and simmer very gently for one and a half hours, stirring occasionally. The diced ham must be thoroughly cooked; check that its centre reaches 70°C for two minutes.
Step 4
Press the sauce through a sieve and then strain through clean food-safe cheesecloth. Measure the actual finished sauce portion needed below and keep it hot for immediate use. Divide the unused sauce into small shallow containers, cool rapidly and refrigerate at 40°F or colder within two hours; freeze for longer storage.
Step 5
Drain the sweetbreads and plunge into fresh boiling water with the one teaspoon salt for blanching for about five minutes. Before any cooling or coating, continue gentle cooking until the thick centre of every sweetbread reaches 75°C for thirty seconds. Lift with clean utensils, trim and split each in two. Season all twelve halves with the remaining one teaspoon salt and half a teaspoon finely ground black pepper. Keep briefly hot while finishing the sauce.
Step 6
For the Béarnaise, peel and finely chop the four small shallots and wash and chop the one fresh tarragon branch. Freshly crush whole white peppercorns and measure one teaspoon freshly crushed white pepper for the sauce. Put these in a small saucepan with the two tablespoons white-wine vinegar and reduce gently by half. Press through clean food-safe cloth into a second small saucepan.
Step 7
Gently melt the two and a half ounces butter without browning and keep hot. Add the two commercially pasteurized egg-yolk equivalents to the warm strained reduction and whisk briskly over very gentle heat for about four minutes without boiling. Gradually whisk in the hot melted butter, mixing continuously over gentle heat. Add the one saltspoon salt and half a saltspoon cayenne, mix for a minute, then stir in the half teaspoon freshly chopped parsley. Keep briefly warm without boiling; avoid a prolonged lukewarm hold.
Step 8
Measure one and a half actual gills of the finished tomato sauce into a saucepan, bring back to a boil and reduce to half a gill. Stir the whole reduced portion into the freshly made Béarnaise and keep briefly warm without boiling for immediate service.
Step 9
Lightly flour the sweetbread halves, dip in beaten commercially pasteurized egg and coat in fresh breadcrumbs. Discard leftover coating materials. Heat two tablespoons gently melted butter in a frying pan and fry the pieces in batches for about six minutes per side until golden, their centres reach 75°C for thirty seconds and their coating is fully cooked. Drain on clean food-safe paper, arrange on a hot dish with six lemon quarters from the one and a half lemons and washed parsley, and serve promptly with the complete warm Montebello sauce separately.
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