Crispy sweetbreads

NOLAchef-crispy-sweetbreadsSweetbreads and I are becoming good friends.

It’s a love hate relationship.

While prepping them I want to vomit and be a vegetarian again.

After they’re cooked I hover over them like mama bird.

We wont get into what sweetbreads are, just know they are part of an animal, either cow or pig.

I’ve been experimenting a lot lately, especially with octopus and sweetbreads at Nola.  This has become my favorite sweetbreads recipe so far.  We’re serving them with endive and berenjena escabeche, a local form of pickled eggplant.

Crispy Sweetbreads  ::

  • 1 disk of sweetbreads (mollejas in Argentina)
  • milk
  • 2 lemon
  • 2 garlic clove smashed
  • salt & pepper
  • olive oil

Remove hard fat from sweetbreads and discard.  Cut sweetbreads into bite size pieces, place in bowl and cover with milk.  We do this to help remove blood and tenderize the meat.  Supposedly…

Some people like to soak their sweetbreads over night, I normally do 1-2 hours.  When you’re ready to cook them drain and rinse and season with salt & pepper.

Place a non stick pack over high heat and add a fat splash of olive oil.  Add garlic cloves and allow to cook for 1 minute before adding sweetbreads.  Once you add the sweetbreads you want to space them out and not overcrowd the pan.  Do this in batches if you must.  If they’re overcrowded they wont get crispy and everything will go downhill from there.

Shake the pan every few minutes until they’re charred on both sides.  Give a hefty squeeze of lemon and a dash of salt while still in the pan and toss toss.  The outsides will be crispy and the center super creamy.  Serve immediately with lemon wedges on the side.

LizaNola