Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide heavy-based frying pan
• •Sharp knife or kitchen scissors
• •Kitchen paper

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the kidneys

   Peel away the thin membrane from each kidney if the butcher hasn't already. Halve them lengthways and snip out the white core with kitchen scissors or a sharp knife. This is the only fiddly part. The core is tough and unpleasant; everything else is tenderness. Pat the kidneys dry with kitchen paper and season generously with salt and pepper. Dry kidneys sear. Wet kidneys stew. The difference matters.

   Ask your butcher for the kidneys and use them the day you buy them. Kidneys don't improve with waiting. If they smell of anything more than a faintly metallic freshness, they've been sitting too long.
2. 2

   Sear in hot butter

   Get a wide, heavy frying pan properly hot over a high flame, then add the butter. It will foam immediately. Watch it. The moment the foam subsides and the butter smells nutty and warm, lay the kidneys in, cut side down. Don't move them. Don't crowd the pan. You want colour, not steam. Give them a minute, maybe ninety seconds, until the underside is bronzed and caramelised. Turn them and give the other side a minute. You're looking for a good sear on the outside and a blush of pink still holding in the centre. Lift them out onto a warm plate. They'll finish in the sauce.

   If your pan isn't hot enough, the kidneys will leak grey liquid instead of searing. Let that liquid cook off, remove the kidneys, wipe the pan, and start again with fresh butter and more heat. No shame in it.
3. 3

   Build the devil sauce

   Turn the heat down to medium. The pan will still be slicked with butter and kidney juices, which is exactly what you want. Stir in the mustard, the Worcestershire, and the cayenne, scraping up whatever has stuck to the base. If you're using brandy, add it now. It will hiss and catch if you're cooking over a flame, which is fine and rather exciting, or it will simply bubble and reduce, which is also fine. Let the sauce come together for thirty seconds. It should smell fierce and warm, the kind of smell that fills the kitchen and makes someone come and ask what you're doing. Squeeze in the lemon juice. Return the kidneys to the pan with any juices from the plate and turn them through the sauce. Thirty seconds more. No longer.

   Taste the sauce before the kidneys go back in. It should make you sit up. If it's timid, more mustard. If it's flat, more lemon. If it needs depth, another shake of Worcestershire. The devil is in the balance.
4. 4

   Toast and serve

   Toast the bread well while the kidneys are searing. Good bread, properly toasted, with butter. It needs to hold up under a hot, wet sauce without turning to mush, so don't be timid with the toasting. Pile the kidneys onto the toast and spoon over every last drop of the sauce from the pan. Scatter the parsley. Eat immediately. This is not a dish that waits for anyone, and there are few better feelings than putting this plate in front of someone on a cold evening and watching them take the first bite.

Chef Tips

• •Ask your butcher for lamb's kidneys and tell them you want them fresh. Kidneys don't keep well, so cook them the day you buy them. A good butcher will have them. A supermarket probably won't, and this is one of those dishes where the sourcing is the cooking.
• •The devil is a balance. Mustard for heat, Worcestershire for depth, cayenne for fire, lemon for sharpness. Taste the sauce before the kidneys go back in and adjust until it makes you sit up. A recipe is a conversation, not a contract.
• •Don't overcook the kidneys. This is the whole thing. They want ninety seconds a side in a properly hot pan, then thirty seconds in the sauce. Pink in the middle is what you're after. If they've gone grey all the way through, you've lost what makes them worth eating.
• •The brandy is optional, but it isn't really. It adds a warmth and a sweetness to the sauce that rounds the whole thing out. A dry sherry does the same job if that's what's in the cupboard. Either way, it wants to be there.

Advance Preparation

• •The kidneys can be halved and cored a few hours ahead, kept covered on a plate in the fridge. Beyond that, this is a last-minute dish. It takes five minutes from hot pan to plate and is better for the urgency.
• •Have everything measured and within reach before you start. Once the pan is hot, there's no time to rummage through cupboards for the Worcestershire. Lay it all out. Then cook.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 250g)