In the kitchen...

I wrote this and published in my Facebook on May 27, 2011 at 11:06p.m.

I've been talking to people and I've noticed that I'm going to face a difficult situation when I move to the U.S.... There are many things I LOVE eating in Brazil that are not common there. In fact, people think they are bizarre. One of those things is... CHICKEN HEARTS.

Chicken hearts!!! Deelicious!!!

Here in Brazil people eat them barbecued. Just put some salt in it, arrange them on a stick and barbecue them. It's DELICIOUS!

If you'd never tried it before, it's chewy and awesome.

Since I got married I've been trying different things in the kitchen. So I've decided to share with my American friends/acquaintances the things I've been cooking from now on. Specially things that are common in BR but not there (so you can surprise me when I get there, maybe... hehehe).

I know some of you are vegetarian or vegan... But I think it's nice to share all those things that I like with you guys. I feel like you could get to know more of me little by little...

Something I'm cooking today that it's definetely not common in Brazil is Stroganoff of chicken hearts. Here we have them made with chicken or meat (I've cooked one made of meat a couple of years ago that I'll never forget... It was made with filet mignon and a brandy sauce). Chicken hearts are common only barbecued.

So here are the steps:

I'm not writing how much stuff I put in it, because I'm not good with numbers. Every time I try following a recipe It goes terribly wrong. Go with your instinct.

I bought the chicken hearts at the supermarket. Maybe you can find them there with a butcher or something like that...

If you'd never tried it before, it's chewy and awesome.

Since I got married I've been trying different things in the kitchen. So I've decided to share with my American friends/acquaintances the things I've been cooking from now on. Specially things that are common in BR but not there (so you can surprise me when I get there, maybe... hehehe).

I know some of you are vegetarian or vegan... But I think it's nice to share all those things that I like with you guys. I feel like you could get to know more of me little by little...

Something I'm cooking today that it's definetely not common in Brazil is Stroganoff of chicken hearts. Here we have them made with chicken or meat (I've cooked one made of meat a couple of years ago that I'll never forget... It was made with filet mignon and a brandy sauce). Chicken hearts are common only barbecued.

So here are the steps:

I'm not writing how much stuff I put in it, because I'm not good with numbers. Every time I try following a recipe It goes terribly wrong. Go with your instinct.

I bought the chicken hearts at the supermarket. Maybe you can find them there with a butcher or something like that...

Then I chopped an ONION, some GARLIC (ah mah gad, I LOVE garlic... but since stroganoff is a food with delicate taste - and the idea here is to taste the hearts - I didn't put so many spices as I like doing), MUSHROOMS (here we call this mushroom CHAMPIGNON - is it like this there too?) and PEPPER (just a little bit... remember: delicate taste).

So... I seriously think chickens die of heart attacks nowadays. Because the hearts are reaaaally fat. So I clean the hearts (take most of the fat out, but I'm not way too careful about that, otherwise I'll lose half of what I've bought), specialy because there are some chunks of blood in it... I take them off. And then I cut the hearts in smaller pieces.

Then... I have a beer.

And that's what you have so far (see that the hearts don't need to be perfectly cleaned):

Let's start cooking it! Heat some olive oil...

Braise (i'm not sure about this word... in Portuguese it's "refogar"... it's kinda similar to "fry") the onions and then the garlic...

Put the hearts in it. Mix it up. Put JUST A LITTLE BIT of whater and heat it till the hearts get softer...

...Salt... Tomatoe sauce... Pepper... Mushrooms... Cream...

Mix it all up until you get something like this:

Heat it for a while, so it'll get kinda creamy...

The secret now is to turn the heat off and let it rest for 30 mimutes or so... Then re-heat it. It gets really creamy.
My husband is still at work and I've just made this dish. Right now it look like this:

I'm gunna wait a while and then I'll prepare some RICE to eat with that. In the rice I'm probably gunna use a lot of garlic. I cook the rice with a pinch of olive oil, garlic, salt and that's it. You have the option of using tiny potato chips like those instead of rice (or a little of both):

After I eat it I'm gunna come back here and tell you if it's good or not... and if my husband liked it or not.

________________________________________________________________________

It was... DELICIOUS!!!!

So... what do you think of this dish? :)