For the offal challenge on MasterChef, we were presented the daunting task of cooking with the organ parts of various animals. Among them were the head, tongue, testicles, hearts and, kidneys of a chicken, pig, cow, and sheep. Most people cringe at the thought of having to cook with these proteins. They consider these the bad or unwanted parts. While I don’t like to use offal in my everyday cooking, I did grow up in a family that used every part of the pig. Ears for flavoring the collards, feet for pickling, etc…

I wanted to use the beef tongue, but we had limited time and that can really take a while to cook down properly. I love chicken livers, but thought that would be too easy in the eyes of the judges. Instead, I decided to braise a nice beef heart and serve it over some petite potatoes.

So, I threw it into a pressure cooker with some veggies, beef broth, spices, and red wine. While that was cooking, I roasted the potatoes in olive oil and a bit of salt.

I topped it off with a tangy red sauce made from reduced pomegranate and vinegar, just a bit of sugar, and to add some heat, I added in a bit of crushed red pepper. A nice compliment to the beef heart’s flavor.

Offal doesn’t have to be awful! If prepared right, it’s actually delicious!