On the heat. Mild

Ingredients

• 600 g lamb kidneys, cored and halved
• 3 tbsp milk or 2 tbsp vinegar, to soak
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 150 ml dry oloroso or amontillado sherry
• 1 tbsp flour · 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 bay leaf · parsley
• Salt, black pepper · bread, to serve

Method

1. Soak the kidneys in the milk or acidulated water for 30 minutes, then rinse and pat them completely dry. This removes the ammoniac edge people object to.
2. Get the pan very hot. Kidneys in, in one uncrowded layer, and sear 90 seconds a side. Out immediately.
3. Heat down. Onion and garlic in the same pan for 8 minutes. Flour in, cooked 2 minutes. Paprika off the heat.
4. Sherry in, scraped, and reduced by half with the bay.
5. Kidneys and any resting juices back in for one minute only, just to warm through and coat.
6. Salt, pepper, parsley. Bread to mop. Serve at once — reheated kidneys go rubbery.

Cook's note. Sear, remove, return. Kidneys cooked continuously in a sauce turn to rubber in four minutes. The two-stage method is not fussiness; it is the only way.

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