So my friends and I got together the other night for an Anthony Bourdain Memorial BBQ with a “nose to tail” theme. Below are some highlights.
Drink of the night was Caipirinhas, one of Bourdain’s favorite cocktails. I was the bartender.
The person who hosted the BBQ made beef tongue tacos. The tongue was cooked for 8 hours, then shredded, and cooked again stove top for another hour. It was fall-apart tender. Did not bear any resemblance to tongue. The taste was amazing, like pure beef. It was only the second time I have had tongue, the first being at Los Corrales in Keyport.
This one was my contribution. “Not Your Grandma’s Liver and Onions”. Fried up some bacon ends, removed that, cooked the onions in the bacon grease, removed them, added a tiny bit of my friend’s homemade suet, and then added the liver. I dredged it in seasoned flour (no soaking in milk at all) and fried it for two minutes on each side. When that was done, I removed it, deglazed the pan with Spanish brandy, added the bacon and onions to cook for a few more minutes and sliced the liver to place on top. If I do say so myself, it was amazing. It made a great sandwich.
We experimented grilling a liver after seasoning it. The meat itself was tender, almost creamy. But the liver flavor was potent as hell!
Another friend who joined us works at a sheep farm and brought a leg of lamb done in balsamic vinegar, garlic, and rosemary. He takes orders for lamb BTW.
I had an early morning next day and had to leave before they grilled the marrow bones, but this was the set-up before I left. Done with a parsley salad using Bourdain’s own recipe.
