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Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

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Brain Salad with Herbs and Pickled Peppers (Salade de Cervelle)

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lamb brain recipe in eggs on lettuce Nothing conjurs up the appetite like a canape of cold, chilled brains, am I right? 

In all seriousness, I’m serious about normalizing offal, and, as brains are some of the most obscure, wiggly, and to most, ghoulish of organ meats, I’m trying to build a section of this site that can show how to cook and enjoy brains that are actually approachable, and delicious. This salad, inspired by one I read about in Richard Olney’s indispensable offal book in The Good Cook series published by the editors of Time Life Books. 

Lamb brains

Wiggly, jiggly brains are more than zombie food.

Brains and eggs are a natural pairing 

I was flipping through pages going to the brain recipe section (like ya do) looking for some ideas I could imagine serving to first time brain eaters, or people who’d never considered eating cranium candy. “Brain Salad with Eggs” sounded like a good place to start. Brains and eggs have similar textures, and mixing the two together could be a good way to disguise them, I thought. Since everyone loves deviled eggs, I imagined egg halves filled with a salad of chopped hard boiled eggs, delicately poached brains, and some other flavorings to lighten it (pickled banana peppers, lemon, herbs, etc). 

Poached lamb brains

Lamb brains, after poaching with lemon and bay, are cooled in their liquid to help imbue flavor.

I got all the ingredients together to make the dish, soaked, then poached my brains, chopped them and mixed with some hard boiled egg whites and yolks, and then re-read the recipe. Unfortunately (or fortunately as the case may be) the brain salad I saw in my mind was a far cry from the dish described by Olney. The original brain salad was different, more deconstructed, and was basically hard boiled egg halves topped with pieces of poached brain with the whole shebang drizzled with mayonnaise—it was a little too brain-forward for my purposes, and I think you’ll like my version here a lot better if you’re feeling up to taking a crack at it. 

lamb brain recipe in eggs on lettuce

The pepper confetti is the perfect colorful finish here, even if you don’t feel like brain salad, I recommend making some.

Pepper confetti

Even if you don’t have a hankering for brain recipes (if you don’t I’m impressed you got this far) the pepper confetti here is a really cool garnish for all kinds of salads, cold and warm dishes. Inspired by Thomas Keller’s pepper confetti from the legendary French Laundry cookbook. While it doesn’t sound like much, I can gaurantee you that you’ll be shocked at how much flavor gets concentrated into a few sprinkles of dried sweet peppers.

After I made it I was sprinkling them on everything, but they’re particularly good with eggs. Tuck that away in your hat for a rainy day, or when the garden is giving you more peppers than you know what to do with. To make pepper confetti, you trim the ribs of sweet peppers (use multiple colors for the best effect) dice them as finely as possible, then dehydrate them and sprinkle on all the things. 

lamb brain recipe in eggs on lettuce

lamb brain recipe in eggs on lettuce
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Lamb Brain Salad with Herbs and Pickled Peppers (Salade de Cervelle)

A simple recipe for brains mixed with hard boiled eggs, mayonnaise, herbs and pickled peppers that will fool most people. It's delicious. You can scale this to fit your needs, but I stretch a modest amount of lamb brains here to yield about 12 egg halves.
Prep Time44 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Soaking time12 hrs
Course: Appetizer, Snack
Cuisine: American, French
Keyword: Brains, Lamb, Offal
Servings: 6

Ingredients

Brains

  • 1 lamb brain 4oz, halved
  • Splash of vinegar such as apple cider
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 dried or fresh bay leaf

Salad

  • 1 hard boiled egg
  • 1.5 tablespoons pickled banana peppers small dice (1/4 inch)
  • Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
  • 1 small lemon
  • 2 tablespoons prepared mayonnaise either homemade or something good like Hellmans
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano or another herb
  • Pepper confetti optional, see note
  • 6 hard boiled eggs optional, see note

Instructions

Soak the brains

  • Soak the brains in cold water in the fridge, changing the water until it runs clear, a few hours.
  • Mix the water, salt and vinegar, then put into a container and add the brain halves and leave overnight. The next day, discard the water.

Poach the brains

  • Cover the brain with fresh water, along with the bay leaf and a ½ inch wide peel of lemon zest and a pinch of salt. Bring the mixture to a simmer, then turn the heat down as low as possible and cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
  • Cool the brain in the poaching liquid.
  • Remove the brains and pat dry, then dice into small cubes about 1/2 -1/4 inch size.

Assembly

  • Mix the diced brains and remaining salad ingredients, spoon into the egg halves, garnish with dried pepper confetti if using, or just a few leaves of herbs and serve on lettuce leaves or another green thing to help make them attractive and fool your dinner guests.

Notes

Eggs
I serve the brain salad here on egg halves as I like the shape and form, and deviled eggs are a vehicle most people I know enjoy. You will have extra yolks leftover, which are good mashed with oil and herbs and spread on toast, buzzed up into mayonnaise (send me a message if you want to try that) etc. If you don't want to serve them in egg halves, you could use toast points.
Pepper Confetti
The pepper confetti here is meant to add color, but also adds a bright pop of flavor. To make it, take a few small, multi-colored lunchbox peppers, or just a red bell pepper, quarter them and remove the ribs, then dice into 1/8 inch or smaller dice if you can (size isn't crazy important, but it's good practice). Dehydrate the peppers at 150F (high setting) on a silicon mat or parchment paper until crisp, then store in an air tight jar in the fridge and sprinkle on things as needed. It's a delicious way to enjoy peppers.

 

 

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  1. How to Cook Brains says:
    December 29, 2020 at 1:05 am

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Alan Bergo
Milkweed buds are the second-best edible part of t Milkweed buds are the second-best edible part of the plant, besides the pods in my opinion. They need to be cooked to be edible. 

I only pick from common milkweed in areas where there’s very large colonies. 

I leave some buds to flower on each plant, I also avoid any tops that have insects or monarch caterpillars. Plenty of food to go around. 

#milkweedisafoodplant #foraging #milkweedbuds #asclepiassyriaca
HALP! I’ve been keeping an eye on two loaded mul HALP! I’ve been keeping an eye on two loaded mulberry trees and both got a bunch of fruit knocked down by the storms and wind. 

If anyone in West WI or around the Twin Cities knows of some trees, (ideally on private property but beggars can’t be choosers) that I could climb and shake with a tarp underneath, shoot me a DM and let’s pick some! 🤙😄

TIA

#throwadogabone #mansquirrel #beattlefruit #mulberries #shakintrees
Lampascioni, or edible hyacinth bulbs are one of t Lampascioni, or edible hyacinth bulbs are one of the more interesting things I’ve eaten. 

These are an ancient wild food traditionally harvested in Southern Italy, especially in Puglia and the Salentine Peninsula, as well as Greece and Crete. I’ve seen at least 6-7 different names for them. 

A couple different species are eaten, but Leopoldia comosa is probably the one I see mentioned the most. They also grow wild in North America. 

The bulbs are toxic raw, but edible after an extended boil. Traditionally they’re preserved in vinegar and oil, pickled, or preserves in other methods using acid and served as antipasti. (Two versions in pic 3). 

They’re one of the most heavily documented traditional wild foods I’ve seen. There’s a few shots of book excerpts here.

The Oxford companion to Italian Food says you can eat them raw-don’t do that. 

Even after pickling, the bulbs are aggressively extremely bitter. Definitely an acquired taste, but one that’s grown on me. 

#traditionalfoods #vampagioli #lampascione #cucinapovera #lampascioni #leopoldiacomosa #foraging
Went to some new spots yesterday looking for poke Went to some new spots yesterday looking for poke sallet and didn’t do too well (I’m at the tip of its range). I did see some feral horseradish though which I don’t see very often. 

Just like wild parsnip, this is the exact same plant you see in the store and garden-just escaped. 

During the growing season the leaves can be good when young. 

They have an aggressive taste bitter enough to scare your loved ones. Excellent in a blend of greens cooked until extra soft, preferably with bacon or similar. 

For reference, you don’t harvest the root while the plant is growing as they’ll be soft and unappealing-do that in the spring or fall. This is essentially the same as when people tell you to harvest in months that have an R in them. 

#amoraciarusticana #foraging #horseradishleaves #horseradish #bittergreens
In Italy chicken of the woods is known as “fungo In Italy chicken of the woods is known as “fungo del carrubo” (carob tree mushroom) as it’s one of the common tree hosts there. 

My favorite, and really the only traditional recipe I’ve found for them so far is simmered in a spicy tomato sauce with hot chile and capers, served with grilled bread. 

Here I add herbs too: fresh leaves of bee balm that are perfect for harvesting right now and have a flavor similar to oregano and thyme. 

Makes a really good side dish or app, especially if you shower it with a handful of pecorino before scooping it up with the bread. 

#chickenofthewoods #fungodelcarrubo #allthemushroomtags #traditionalfoods #beebalm
First of the year 😁. White-pored chicken of t First of the year 😁. 

White-pored chicken of the woods (Laetiporus cincinnatus) are my favorite chicken. 

Superior bug resistance, slightly better flavor + texture. They also stay tender longer compared to their more common yellow-pored cousins. Not a single bug in this guy. 

#treemeat #ifoundfood #foraging #laetiporuscincinnatus #chickenofthewoods
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