Foodnight – 4th Course:
Fried, breaded smoked sweetbreads with cauliflower puree
Techniques: Frying and sous vide.
Cauliflower Puree
The cauliflower was cut into small pieces and cooked in 1/3 water, 1/3 milk, and 1/3 cream for about 20 minutes until they were tender. Then the cauliflower was strained and blended with a bit of the liquid, salt, white pepper, a touch of lemon, and vinegar. More liquid was added until the mixture was smooth and delicious. Finally, it was warmed in a new pot.
Veal Sweetbreads
2 out of 3 of today’s chefs had never tried sweetbreads before. The host is a fan of glands after having tried lamb glands at a good Aarhus-based restaurant focusing on French cuisine.
Therefore, sweetbreads were the first thing we agreed should be on the menu. The sweetbreads were purchased from Guldrummet, and then the big brainstorming session began for all three of us. None of us had ever made sweetbreads, and the internet was flooded with endless possibilities for preparing and cooking them. We chose to follow most of a guide from Greatbritishchefs.com, as they recommend the sous vide technique among other things.
We chose to soak them overnight and cook them sous vide/water bath for 1 hour at 60 degrees.
They were taken out of the bag and carefully dried off before the membranes/tendons were removed from the outside.
Then they were lightly cold-smoked with whisky-soaked sawdust before being breaded in panko and fried at 190 degrees until crispy.
Result of the 4th Course in Foodnight:
After removing the membranes, we chose to cool the sweetbreads for 3 hours for the evening’s planning. It was certainly a mistake on our part, as most of the sweetbreads were unfortunately undercooked. We think the recipe assumed they were still warm when they went into the fryer and thus finished cooking there. However, the combination of the crispy panko, the juicy sweetbreads, and the mild cauliflower puree was top-notch. Had we cooked the sweetbreads perfectly, the meal would have been world-class.
The blood alcohol level of the chefs was also starting to get a bit too high, which is clearly visible in the video where we smoke the sweetbreads: