You're all heart

Offal has always featured in the Benson family repetoire for as long as I can remember - kidneys and scrambled egg, kidney and sausage, liver and bacon, steak and kidney, cold tongue with salads. But it wasn't till 2 years ago I ventured as far as tripe and that was on La Rambla - it was worth the wait. And it wasn't till last week I tried cooking heart - and it wasn't even Valentines Day.

Remove the top of the heart. You can leave in the aortas et al. I prefferred to remove them - as you remove the veins from kidneys or liver because they are tough.

You just need to slip a super-sharp knife around.

I filled them with a mixture of minced lamb, breadcrumbs and fresh herbs. Then sealed them (with gives you the caramelisation flavour) in a hob-to-oven cassrole dish.
Then braised in red wine sauce, onions & thyme for 4 hours. If you have ever experienced tough heart (the edible variety) it was probably because they were just not cooked long enough. Mustard creamed potato makes a great accompaniment.