Equipment
Ingredients
Veal Sweetbreads
- 400 g veal sweetbreads, fresh, whole
- 500 ml whole milk, cold
- 15 ml white wine vinegar
- 30 g unsalted butter
- 15 ml olive oil
- flaky sea salt
Morel and Fava Bean Risotto
- 300 g arborio rice
- 150 g fresh morel mushrooms, cleaned and halved longitudinally
- 200 g fava beans, shelled from outer pod
- 1200 ml chicken stock, kept warm
- 120 ml dry white wine
- 2 shallot, finely diced
- 50 g unsalted butter, cold, diced
- 60 g parmigiano-reggiano, freshly grated
- 15 ml olive oil
Method
Place the veal sweetbreads in a mixing bowl and cover completely with cold whole milk. Refrigerate for 3 hours to draw out impurities and residual blood.
Drain and rinse the sweetbreads. In a medium pot, bring water and white wine vinegar to a gentle simmer at 90C/195F. Add the sweetbreads and poach until firm but not cooked through.
Use a slotted spoon to transfer the sweetbreads to an ice bath. Once cool enough to handle, use a chef knife and your fingers to carefully peel away the tough outer membrane and any excess connective tissue.
Place the cleaned sweetbreads on a baking sheet lined with a clean kitchen towel. Cover with another towel, place a heavy weight on top, and press in the refrigerator for 1 hour to compact the texture.
Bring a clean medium pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch the shelled fava beans for 1 minute, then shock in ice water. Pinch the skin of each bean to slide out the bright green inner cotyledon. Discard the skins.
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat half the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the halved morels and saute until they release their moisture and deeply brown. Remove from the pan and set aside.
In the same saucepan, melt 20g of the risotto butter over medium-low heat. Add the diced shallots and sweat until translucent. Add the arborio rice and toast, stirring continuously.
Pour the dry white wine into the toasted rice. Deglaze the pan, stirring constantly until the wine is completely absorbed and the raw alcohol smell dissipates.
Begin adding the warm chicken stock one ladle at a time. Stir continuously, allowing the rice to absorb the liquid before adding the next ladle. Continue this process until the rice is tender but retains a slight bite in the center.
Remove the saucepan from the heat. Vigorously fold in the remaining cold, diced butter, grated parmigiano-reggiano, cooked morels, and peeled fava beans to create a rich emulsion known as the mantecatura. Season to taste.
Heat a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat with the sweetbread olive oil and butter. Once foaming subsides, add the pressed sweetbreads. Sear until a deep, crispy golden crust forms on both sides and they reach a safe internal temperature of 74C/165F.
Spoon the creamy morel and fava bean risotto into warm shallow bowls. Slice the seared sweetbreads into thick medallions and arrange them over the risotto. Finish with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt.
Chef's Notes
- Always press sweetbreads under a weight after blanching. This compresses their delicate cellular structure, making them easier to slice and resulting in a vastly superior, even sear.
- Morels harbor significant dirt in their honeycombs. Agitate them gently in cold water just before cooking, then dry them thoroughly to ensure they saute rather than steam.
- The mantecatura, the final step of beating fat into the risotto off the heat, is critical. Using very cold, diced butter rather than room temperature butter helps create a stable, velvety emulsion.
- Fava beans require double-shelling. Skipping the removal of the waxy inner skin will result in a bitter, unpleasantly chewy addition to an otherwise refined dish.
Storage
Refrigerator: 2 days — Store sweetbreads and risotto separately. Risotto will thicken significantly.
