Yesterday, I was looking for some different recipes and stumbled upon something called “Chanfaina”. I’d never heard of it, but the picture looked pretty good, so I thought, why not give it a shot?
First, I gathered all the ingredients. It seemed like I needed a lot of stuff: lamb liver, lamb kidney, lamb heart, onions, garlic, tomatoes, some spices I wasn’t too familiar with, and a bunch of other things. Honestly, finding all this was a bit of a scavenger hunt in the grocery store.
Getting Started
- I started by chopping up all the meat into little pieces. This part took a while, and, well, it wasn’t the most pleasant thing I’ve ever done.
- Then, I diced the onions and garlic. Easy enough, I’ve done that a million times.
Next, I heated some oil in a big pot and threw in the onions and garlic. Once they got soft and smelled good, I added the meat and browned it all up. This made the kitchen smell pretty intense, to be honest.
Building the Flavors
After the meat was browned, I tossed in the chopped tomatoes, some spices (I think it was cumin, paprika, and something called “pimentón”), and a bay leaf. I stirred everything together and let it simmer for a good while, maybe an hour or so. I just kept checking on it and adding a little water when it looked like it was getting too dry.
The recipe said to let it cook until the meat was super tender, and the sauce had thickened up. My apartment smelled…interesting. Kind of gamey and spicy, all at the same time.
The Final Result
Finally, I figured it was done. The meat was falling apart, and the sauce looked pretty thick. I served it up with some crusty bread, like the picture I saw. I was very nervous when i took the first bited.
The taste? Well, it was definitely…different. It was rich, and the spices were really strong. The meat was tender, but it had a flavor I’m not used to. I’m not sure I loved it, but I didn’t hate it either. It was an experience, that’s for sure.
Would I make it again? Maybe. It was a lot of work, and the ingredients weren’t exactly my usual go-to’s. But, hey, I tried something new, and that’s always a good thing, right?
