Beef Heart Mini ‘Steaks’ With Mushrooms & Bourbon

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Cooking The Dark Side ...

Humble, oft neglected beef heart steps up to the plate and soundly delivers in this recipe designed to enhance and expand it’s mild taste.

Heart is one of the three major types of muscle in mammals, the others being skeletal and smooth muscle. By itself, beef heart has a delicate, beefy flavour unlike rump, porterhouse or sirloin. The texture is quite firm, somewhat dense and very fine grained with no interstitial fat marbling what so ever.

Heart needs to be cooked with some care lest it becomes dry and tough. It is, after all, a hard-working muscle. The above mentioned physical characteristics of heart make it particularly suitable to grilling, fast pan frying or slow braising. Today we grill – or pan sear in the absence of a grill or grilling pan.

Jack Daniels, with its sweetish, woody, somewhat astringent and bitter undertone, pairs particularly well with mildly flavoured beef heart. White button mushrooms – in their demure fashion – compliment and fill out the flavour profile whilst mild, whole grain mustard and cream round off and smoothen the ensemble performance.

BEEF HEART MINI ‘STEAKS’ WITH MUSHROOMS & BOURBON

– PRINT RECIPE –

Recipe yields: 2 Portions

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 20 min

Difficulty level: Easy

Special Equipment Required:

1 x 200mm Chef’s knife, shaving sharp

1 x Spiral wire whisk

optional:

1 x Ridged, cast iron grilling pan / skillet

Ingredients:

Beef heart, stripped & quartered	±700g
Sunflower oil	5ml
Medium onion, finely diced	1
Chopped garlic	5ml
Dried oregano	2.5ml
Sunflower oil	15ml
Button mushrooms, thickly sliced	250g
Jack Daniels bourbon	60ml
Water	100ml
Fresh cream	30ml
Corn flour	5ml
Mild flavoured, wholegrain mustard	5ml
Salt	5ml
Robertsons Barbeque spice	2.5ml

 Method:

1. Slice the heart across it’s long axis (and grain) into 15mm thick cuts. Trim domino sized, 50mm x 30mm, ‘mini steaks’ from each cut until ±350g - sufficient for two portions – are available. Toss the ‘mini steaks’ with 5ml sunflower oil, cover and set aside until needed. Collect the trimmings, cut into goulash sized cubes and freeze for later use, e.g. Beef Heart in Brown Onion Gravy.
2. Sauté the onion, garlic, oregano and second portion of oil in a sauté pan over medium heat until soft, translucent and ‘dry’. Do not brown or caramelize the onions. Remove to a bowl, cover and keep warm.
3. Sauté the mushrooms in the same pan over medium heat until done and starting to brown. Use the liquid thrown from the sautéing mushrooms to lift any stuck or caramelized bits from the pan. Transfer the mushrooms to the bowl containing the sautéed onions, cover and keep warm.
4. If used: Heat the ridged grilling pan until very hot. Arrange the oiled ‘mini steaks’ diagonally across the direction of the grilling ridges. Grill, uncovered, over high heat until well browned and marked underneath. Turn and repeat on the opposite side. The mini steaks should be done to medium rare or medium level, no further. Transfer to an oven dish, cover and keep warm in a low oven until needed.
5. Arrange the oiled heart ‘mini steaks’ – well separated – in a hot, clean frying pan over medium high heat. Sear until well browned underneath, turn and repeat on the opposite side. The mini steaks should be done to medium rare or medium level, no further. Transfer to an oven dish, cover and keep warm in a low oven until needed.
6. Add the bourbon to the frying pan; adjust the heat to medium low and heat until boiling. Do not flame the bourbon as a lot of flavour will be lost. Adjust the heat to low and scrape the pan with the spiral wire whisk to lift any stuck and caramelized bits from the pan. Work fast as the bourbon will boil down rapidly. Reduce the bourbon by no more than half.
7. Combine the water, cream, corn flour, mustard, salt and barbeque spice in a small bowl. Mix thoroughly and add it to the reduced bourbon in the frying pan. Stir diligently to prevent lumps from forming. Heat until the sauce starts to thicken and simmer. Add the reserved onions and mushrooms. Mix thoroughly and heat until hot.
8. Arrange the beef heart mini steaks over the carbohydrate base of choice and drape generously with sauce. Serve immediately.

Comments:

• The technique for stripping and preparing beef heart was discussed in the method section of the recent post: Beef Heartin Brown Onion Gravy.
• Resist the temptation to flambé the boiling bourbon. It’s quite spectacular, but a lot of flavour and aroma goes up in those flames as well.
• This dish is very well supported with farafelle pasta doused, after being drained, with a tad of high quality, extra virgin olive oil.
• Add some rough chopped, sun dried (or oven dried cocktail tomatoes) to the hot, al dente pasta and set aside for 5 minutes for the tomatoes to soften somewhat. Those dried tomatoes are tangy little flavour bombs that really liven things up and pique the eater’s interest.

© RS Young, 2017

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Note:

Post updated on 2024.03.18 to include:

1. The updated Recipe for downloading as a PDF file, and

2. Recipe Title and Print Recipe, Recipe Index and Facebook & Pinterest follow links.