If you remember this African fusion dish I made with a tomato stew base I was talking about on how to clean kidneys. Here we have to do it again for this post. This dish doesn’t have a curry or a stew base because I wanted it dry so that is the way I made it.
The cast iron skillets are out of this world and cooks them to perfection.
Take 6 kidneys and cut them using a paring knife, being sure to cut it away from the white part on the inside. I swear you do not want to eat garbage and the white fatty part on the inside and the plus the tubes the bottom of the kidneys that leads to the bladder also is inedible. Just cut those things and throw them away and best yet just tie them up in a tiny plastic bag and throw it away outside because it stinks like hell if it is just sitting there.
Just one day when my husband is home I am going to make an instruction video on youtube to demonstrate on how to clean kidneys. Don’t forget you want the brown part of the kidneys this is what you want trust me. After the white parts are taken out of them then just put in a bowl some cold water in a mixing bowl, making sure that the water is just over the cut kidneys. Add 3 pinches of kosher salt and and 3 tbs of white vinegar.
This cleans the kidneys very quickly and keep washing and straining to get the blood and all of the impurities out of the kidneys. I let them soak while I am doing the prepping for the masala and the rest of the steps.
In my trusty cast iron skillet I heat it up and I add 3 tbs of olive oil, I put 2 cloves of garlic and a small slice of ginger I had washed and peeled in my mortar and pestle and grind them and add them to the cast iron. I add 1 pinch of black peppercorns and I grind them in my mortar and pestle and add them to the skillet too. I add 1 pinch each of pink salt and red chili powder and 1 green chili I washed and chopped then drain and wash the kidneys one final time to make sure all of the blood is out of them.
I shook them in a sieve to make sure there is no excess water remaining and I added them to the skillet and started to fry them. The water was coming out of them still while cooking and this is ok too. This is normal. Cook with the burner on low heat because cast irons conducts a lot of heat and they cook the food evenly.
I added 3 dashes of either maggi or knorr aroma and let the kidneys cook stirring them every 3 minutes or so while they are cooking until all of the water in the kidneys is dried up.
Turn off the burner and add either 1 tbs of lemon or lime juice and give one final stir.
Enjoy with chapati.
benazir's blog 