Animal organs contain a lot of vitamins (especially those from the B group, but also A, D, E, K), and minerals (iron, phosphorus, copper, magnesium, zinc, selenium). Thus, they can be considered superfoods, with anti-inflammatory and detoxifying effects, being nutritious and filling. On the other hand, the concentration of cholesterol and purines is also high, and if the animal from which they come has not had a healthy lifestyle, the concentration of toxins in the organs is high, higher than in lean meat. And then what should we do? We ask ourselves philosophically, standing like Buridan’s donkey between 2 possibilities. Let’s not completely exclude them from the diet (if we excluded all foods that are not perfect we would be feeding on air), but let’s consume with caution, not daily and not in large quantities.
I consume organs once or twice a week in vegetable stews, in which I put a few chicken gizzards and hearts, grilled kidneys, livers lightly seared in a cast iron pan, or liver pate. In this text I present you a recipe for meat and organ pudding, a kind of more digestible drob (traditional Romanian dish) that can be made quite easily. For the AIP version replace the psyllium bran with tapioca starch and curry with turmeric.
Ingredients
- 500 grams of minced chicken meat (breast and leg)
- A pork heart
- 200 grams of turkey liver (or whatever liver you have)
- One medium onion
- One medium carrot
- A bunch each of dill and parsley
- One tablespoon of nutritive dry yeast flakes
- One tablespoon of psyllium bran
- A teaspoon of salt
- A teaspoon of curry (or a teaspoon of turmeric and half a teaspoon of pepper)
- A teaspoon of dried thyme
- 2 cloves of garlic
Recipe Method
The organs are boiled in hot water, first the pork heart cut into 4, and after 10 minutes we add the livers and leave for another 5 minutes. We cut the onion and the carrot into small cubes, we crush and mince the garlic as well, then saute for a minute in a teaspoon of duck lard, add the diced heart and the livers, half of them also cut into small cubes, the other half into larger pieces, stir a little more, then put 2-3 spoons of the water in which the organs was boiled. Leave for another 5 minutes, then turn off the heat. After they cool down a bit, we take out the larger pieces of liver and mash them well, preferably with a mini blender, and mix the whole list of ingredients in a bowl, then turn them over in the tray, on baking paper. My pan is square with a side of 22 cm, and our pudding should be 2-3 fingers high. We smooth it well, grease the surface with a little oil and put it in the oven heated to 200 degrees Celsius for half an hour. Let it cool for a few minutes, not cold, because it will absorb all the fat, and we don’t want that. We cut it into squares, and we take the squares out on the paper napkins, which will absorb the excess fat. A palm-sized square is enough for lunch or dinner, cold or warm, alongside a large salad of green leaves, cabbage or whatever other crazy vegetables you can think of.
