By Greg B. There comes a time when normal, everyday regular animal meats just aren’t enough.  I’ve roasted a lot of chickens, eaten all the usual cuts of beef and roasted entire pigs.  But sometimes you just want a bit more.  So with my slow and sporadic attempts to alter my diet to be more paleo, I’ve decided to incorporate a lot more organs… you might say this is one of my new years resolution: to eat more internal organs (as well as game meats).  And where to start better than cow heart?  While I do love liver, and eat is frequently, heart represents a meat that is a little more difficult to cook, but something that is low in fat and high in protein.  So with the paleo diet in mind, I set out to make a healthy braised heart dish!

The actual recipe is easy, though it does require some time, so don’t think you can just whip up this meal in a few minutes.  As I put in the title, you’re going to be braising (braising is from the French ‘brasier’, but since I live with an Italian woman, I figured I’d give homage to her heritage, and use the brasato term) which is a process involving low heat and long period of time, all with the intent on breaking down tough cuts of meat and making them tender.  We’re also going to be using some vegetables and fruits that have acids to accomplish the same goal, both for flavor and to ensure that our braising doesn’t take all day!  For this recipe, you’re going to need:

• 1 cow heart, ~ 1.5lbs (trimmed of fat, ligands, valves, etc)
• 1 beer (I used a bottle of Ommegang Witte)
• 3 medium carrots, diced
• 2 large celery stalks, diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 medium tomatoes, diced
• ~1 cup frozen peas
• 2 limes, rolled and juiced
• ~ 1 tablespoon fresh chives, diced
• 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 2 tablespoons bacon fat
• 1/2 cup flour

Using a large cast iron braising pot, bring the temperature us and heat the bacon fat at or just under smokepoint.  Take the trimmed heart and slice it in half, roll it in the flour to lightly cover it and shake off excess flour (you might want to either season the flour with salt and pepper, or season the heart meat before rolling it in flour.  I prefer to season the flour a bit).  Add the two floured and seasoned halves of cow heart to the hot oil, and sear all sides of it.  This will take a few minutes, but just watch it carefully to make sure it does not burn.  The meat will be a nice dark brown when seared, and when flipping it will appear to be very tough.  Don’t worry, if our braise goes according to plan, this will all change dramatically.

Once all the sides have a nice sear, add your 1 bottle of beer and turn the heat down to medium or so.  refill the beer bottle and add about two more beer bottles worth of water to the pot, or enough water to cover the meat.  Add to it all the rest of the ingredients, and just make sure the meat is very well submerged.  Having enough or too much liquid at this point is a tricky call, and you’ll only really know after doing this a while, but if you add enough liquid at the start to just submerge the meat, then add the vegetables, you should have enough liquid for the recipe, as the veggies will lose some of their water when cooked.  At this point, cover, and bring the pot up to a nice solid simmer, than walk away.  After about 60 minutes, return and just flip the meat or mix the ingredients in the pot to make sure nothing is burning or sticking, and everything has equal time inside the hot liquid. 

After a total simmering time of about 2.5 hours, remove the lid and check the meat.  While meat that is attached to a bone will at this point be pulling back from the joints, as you would see in well cooked ribs, or braised lamb shanks or so, heart has no real joints to detach from.  So take a pair of tongs, pick up the meat and using a pair of kitchen scissors, cut off one bite-sized portion of it.  If the heart is fully cooked through, the scissors should have no problems easily slicing through the meat.  If this is true, I like to slice up the meat into bite-sized portions, let simmer for another 5-10 minutes, then serve.  If the meat is still rather tough, give it another 30-60 minutes.  Braising takes some time to work, but with the low heat, the right liquid, and our addition of the acidic tomatoes and the lime juice, we should accomplish this fairly easily.

And voila!  At this point, you have a very hearty dish, full of vegetables and low fat protein from heart muscle.  If you want to cheat from paleo, add a slice of bread from a baguette or something, just at the end to sop up the rest of the juices (I know, it’s not really paleo, since I used beer in the recipe, but as the beerman, I feel it’s my job to use beer in cooking as well as drinking!).  This is a delicious meal that actually will taste better the second day.  If you think the meat is tender after cooking, let the heart cool overnight in a leftover container in the fridge, where those collagen fibers form back together again a little bit, then re-heat the heart and really break them down again.  It’s one of the few meals that is as good the second day as it is the first day.  This is a very savory meal, and the cooking process really means you get almost none to no levels of that ‘organ’ flavor with the heart, but instead get a good, meaty, earthy type of flavor.  The heart is tender as can be, the vegetables are cooked down lending their individual flavors to the whole dish, and actually the chives make a nice, random addition to the meal (I just happen to see them in the store, and figured what the heck!).  This is a hearty meal, good for cold, depths of winter which we’re currently in.  Bon Appetite!