Have a Heart

Yesterday my family got together at my mom's house to enjoy the last vestiges of summer. We were also giving my son a send off to college. Everyone brought something to the table. My mother made a great potato salad. What I love about it is that it is not sweet. She adds paper thin cut carrots, celery, onions and pimento stuffed olives to it. Spanish flair potato salad. My sister brought a salad and her dressing was very unique. Herbs de Provence vingrette. Herbs de provence have a touch of lavender. You can buy a small packet of just the herbs at World Market to try out. And she also brought corn on the cob in husks to grill. The best way to grill corn is soak it in water, husks and all for a couple of hours. When you are 30 mins away from serving your meal, put the corn ears on the grill and close the lid. Save the water. If you don't have a cover, try aluminum foil. You want to create some steam. Every ten minutes turn the corn a third of the way and sprinkle some water on each ear. Do this again in another 10 mins. Uncover the corn and stop adding water. Now you want the husks to brown. Do not worry if they burn a bit. It gives it a wonderful roasted flavor.

To serve, have some prepared butters on the side.

Here are a few options. Make sure your butter is at room temperature for easy mixing.

Garlic Chive Butter - fresh chopped garlic and chives.

Chili Lime Butter - powdered chili, juice of 1/2 lime. You can use fresh chopped cilantro instead of chili powder for another flavor.

Sun-Dried Tomato Basil - 2 sun dried tomatos and fresh chopped basil

If you have left over butter, put them in the fridge and you can use them on pasta or chicken for another meal.

I had purchased some chicken drumsticks. I seasoned them with salt and pepper only. There were 3 dozen drumsticks. I planned for leftovers. Just because it was Labor Day the next day, I didn't want to labor on my day off. The reason the seasoning was so simple, I had taken a variety of BBQ sauces. With 9 people in attendance, you have to try and please them all. BBQ sauce selection was:

Wasabi Teriyaki BBQ sauce

Mexican Beer and Chipotle BBQ sauce

Mother's Mild BBQ sauce

Mother's Hot and Wild BBQ sauce

Now, the suprise of the evening was my stepfather's kebobs. He is from Peru. I saw this plate with a lot of kebobs that had little pieces of meat on it. I initially thought he had taken a steak and cut it very small for appetizers. Now I was right on the appetizer thing, but it was not exactly steak. A little history first. In poor countries, every part of an animal that has been slaughtered is used. The skin (leather) for shoes and clothes. Horns for instruments or weapons. The jaw can become an instrument in Africa. You get the picture. Even in the USA in time of slavery, the slaves where given the lowest of the cuts of meat to consume. But out of necessity comes ingenuity. Chitlins where born in the south. Now it is being served "a la gourmet". Well the same happened in Latin America. The best cuts of meat where given to the Spaniard masters and the inerds were given to the servents. Again ingenuity insued. In Peru today, kidneys, brains and heart from the cow are delicacies. I will be very honest I have never had kidney, brains or heart. I have had tripe though in soup or tongue. Great stuff. Peruvians have national dishes that are very unique. I have mentioned this before, Latin Americans eat VERY differently from one country to another.

But back to the cookout with my family. I was almost finished with the chicken and corn. I asked my stepfather that I wanted hin to cook his kebobs, but to show me how. He said he cut the heart into bit size pieces. He took olive oil, finely chopped garlic and pepper and added it to the cut heart and tossed it. He let it marinate for an hour. At the same time he took the skewers and soaked them in water to avoid burning. Then he made the kebobs, and put them on a platter. I had taken a picture of the platter but lost it some where along the way. In a separate bowl he made another sauce to add to the kebobs while they are grilling. They have to stay moist during the cooking process. Here are the ingredients:

1 cup of La Vina Red Cooking wine. If you can't find this brand, Holland House is another great brand.

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

Salt

Mix

Turn the heat of the grill on medium. It will have been hot from cooking all the other ingredients. Put the skewers on the grill and immediately start brushing the wine/oil sauce on it.

As soon as you see the meat browning on one side, turn it and marinate it again. I learned that if you overcook heart, it gets tough very fast.

Now I am the adventurous eater of my family. I immediately tried a piece. It was absolutely amazing. It tasted like a wonderful piece of filet mignon, just not as "muscley". I don't know how else to describe it. I immediately called everyone to gather around the grill and pick a kebob. My stepfather had some hot sauce on the side and a cold beer for the adults. I promised my teenage son and his girlfriend that they would not find it gross. I was not worried about anyone gaging. The kids loved it. They went back for seconds. Now the miracle was my chef. I could have easily tricked him because he had not seen the kebobs. He was busy inside watching golf on TV. But I wanted him to know what he was eating, so I told him. He was already making those "I am disgusted" looks on his face. I promised him that he would like it. I even had the kids show him that they were eating heart. AND HE DID!! I was so proud of him. Then he says he would have been better off not knowing that it was cow heart. I will never understand men. By telling him he was already prejudiced, but inside I knew he liked it. He was just to proud to admit it. Of course he added a lot of hot sauce and a swig of beer.

Don't have any final ideas about how something is going to taste. I understand though. Even I have my limits. My food can't be alive, it can't be slimy, it can't look like an aracnid and it has to be prepared in an extremely clean environment. With those limits I think I can try something at least once. And if you don't like it then at least you have a new conversation subject about that crazy time you ate ......

Enjoy!