Recipe: Pan fried Sweetbreads with a black truffle jus

The day before

1- Place your sweetbreads in 10 litres of fresh water, changing the water every 6h until they become white.

The next day

2- Put your sweetbreads in a pot and some cold water and slowly bring them to the boil until some foam comes to the surface (about 12 minutes).

3- Then, cool down your sweetbreads in some iced cold water.

4- Strain them, trim down all the hard skins and fatty bits, etc. Be careful not to remove the thin clear skin surrounding them.

5- Place them on a tray, on the top of a clean kitchen cloth with a another one on the top of them. Cover them with a carving board and about 4 lb of weight for an hour.

6- Lets prepare out the asparagus, bring 5 litres of salted water to the boil. Peel your asparagus and gather them into bundles. Cook them for 15 to 20 minutes. Cover them with a clean kitchen cloth and test them with a the tip of an office knife to see if they are cooked.

Cool them down and set them aside on a tray.

7- Back to our sweetbreads:

Slice each sweetbreads into four pieces of equal size. Melt down 80g of butter. Season well each pieces of sweetbreads.

8- Spread the bread crumb on a platte. Pass each pieces of meat in the butter, then into the bread crumb. Make sure that they are well coated. Set them aside into the fridge.

9- Cut each asparagus 6cm (3.5 nch)from the top and place their heads on a tray with some melted butter. Chop the asparagus tips into pieces 1cm long. Bring the cream to the boil, season with salt and pepper, plunge the asparagus pieces into the cream. Allow to cook for a couple of minutes. Then, add the truffle trimmings, cover and keep on the corner of the stove.

10- Now the black truffle :

Reduce the port by half, season well and add the sliced truffle. Bring to the boil. Then, cover and set aside on the corner of the stove.

11- Lets cook our sweetbreads :

Heat up 50g of butter with a little bit of oil until golden brown. Panfry the sweetbreads for 6 minutes on each sides(or until golden blond). When done set them aside in a hot place.

Arrangement

a) Slowly heat up 100g of fine butter.

b) On the side of each plattes make a small mount of creamed asparagus and place 4 heads of asparagus on them.

c) Place 4 pieces of sweatbreads next to the asparagus and place a slice of truffle on each pieces. Pour the reste of the jus on the asparagus.

d) Finally add a teaspoon of water to the butter as well as a hint of lemon juice. Stir for a minute or two with a whick and pour some the foamy butter onto the sweetbreads.

Serve and eat straight away.

You'll tell me, such a long recipe for such a simple dish. To get this recipe right you will need to be organised, conscientious and have a lot of rigour. Simplicity is always the most difficult thing to achieve.