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Debris - Cooking Cajun Variety Meats aka Cowboy StewMain Dishes & Casseroles
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Submitted by Shirley Thibodeaux
on Friday, September 17, 2004
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| Makes: | 7 servings |
| Prep Time: | 30 minutes |
| Cook Time: | 1 hour, 30 minutes |
| Ready In: | 2 hours, 0 minutes |
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This dish contains most of the variety meats that Cajuns call debris. It consists basically of the organs such as liver, heart, kidneys, tripe, spleen (melt), the honeycomb (la platin), brain, lungs and sweetbreads (pancreas). There are two kinds of sweetbreads: stomach sweetbreads (also known as heart or belly sweetbreads), which are an animal's pancreas, and neck (AKA throat or gullet) sweetbreads, an animal's thymus gland. Although not used to make debris, the tail, feet and tongue are also considered variety meats.
Variety meats from younger animals, as was generally slaughtered at the boucherie in my day, are milder and more tender than those from mature animals. Although my experience with variety meats has been with calves, debris may be made with beef, veal, lamb, pork or poultry organs.
Editor's Note: a recipe request for Chef John Folse.
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| Ingredients |
| 2 1/2 pound variety meats in whatever mixture you want |
1 medium onion sliced |
| 1/2 medium bell pepper chopped |
2 stalks celery chopped |
| 1/4 cup cooking oil or one large stirring spoon |
salt, black pepper and red pepper to taste or Season All |
| 1 - 2 tbsp vinegar |
1/2 cup parsley optional |
| 1/2 cup green onions (scallions) optional |
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| | | Directions | The night before you cook the dish: Slice and cut the variety meats to bite size. If the heart in included in the mix, remove and clean out the veins. To clean the intestines – run water through intestine until all bile is removed. Peel skin from off outside of intestines (this is important, if you don’t it will be like eating a tire tube.)
Cut intestines into 1 inch long pieces. Cube heart into one half inch pieces. Cube liver into one half inch pieces.
Season to taste with salt, black pepper, and red pepper or Season-All. Slice the onion, bell pepper and celery and combine with the variety meats. Add the vinegar to the mixture of the seasoned meats; mix well. Put all in a Ziploc bag and refrigerate overnight; turning every now and then.
Using a heavy aluminum or cast iron pot, preheat the pot lightly. Pour the debris mixture into the heated pot. Over medium heat, brown the meat mixture and stir to prevent from burning. You do not want the heat too high as the liver and brain are very delicate meats and can easily fall apart.
Basically you will be braising the meat. Once it is as brown as possible without burning, start to add minimal amounts of water; the gravy will start to form. Once your meat is as browned as you like, add enough water to make the amount of gravy you want. Cover your pot and cook until all meats are tender. Cooking times vary but range from 45 minutes to 60 minutes. If your water cooks out, just add more water. When finished, your gravy will be a light mocha brown color. Some cooks add parsley and onion tops in the last ten minutes of cooking. Serve over rice. Or
Editors Note: My Mom would season her debris and coat lightly with flour. The oil was added to her black pot and the debris was browned. She would add her onions, bell pepper, celery and vinegar and sauté all together adding enough water in the process to prevent the meat from sticking. She would then add water, cover and cook until tender; pretty much following the above steps.
A quick work around. Stick it in a pot with a little oil, season to taste and brown it. Then you add onions, green onion tops, parsley or what ever you want. Some people add a little roux; about a tablespoon just too thicken it. That is up to you how thick you like your gravy.
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