Lamb Heart Anitcuchos. Tacos with Mint Pico de Gallo and Peruvian Aji Sauce

Lamb Heart Anticuchos. Taco with Mint Pico de Gallo and Peruvian Aji Sauce

Disclaimer... I am doing my interpretation of a classic Peruvian dish and adding Mexican elements. It works great together, but no doubt I'll have a few hardcore traditionalists plotting my death. It was worth it. I have no regrets. 

Let’s get this straight, not everyone will want to eat heart. You should!! It's cheap, sustainable. No fat. Lean. Full of iron. And it cooks like a dream. My main thing here is to showcase that food can be just as tasty and presentable from any part of the animal. But this works just as well with other cuts too. Just about any steak or fillet from any animal. 

Lamb Hearts. Ask your butcher to remove the white muscle and dice the meat. This recipe calls for thinly sliced. So, 2 hearts will happily feed 2 people.

1 cup Red Wine Vinegar

25g sugar

2 Ancho Chillies diced. Any chilli is fine really for this recipe. If you have chilli paste even better. Homemade can't be best. 

1 tsp dried chilli

1 tsp cumin

Salt /pepper to taste.

Slice up your hearts as thin as you can and marinade in this mix. Allow for 1 hour max as you don’t want the lamb to cook in the vinegar. 

Using gloves, start getting the thin cuts onto a wooden skewer. You only want to fill half the skewer. This is my take on Peruvian anticuchos. A typical South American street food traditionally with beef heart. So once again, I can hear the purists getting ready to attack me.

Once skewered you want cook over the hottest part of the BBQ or on a smoking hot pan. Literally 2 minutes each side. Done. You want to get a lovely char on the outside.

Corn Tortillas. Authentic Mexican if possible. Flour tortillas are very dry. Smaller tortillas are best for this recipe. You can make your own. But if you can source a good supplier, takes out the hard work. I used Irish company Blanco Niño for this recipe. 

Pico de Gallo

3 Tomatoes quartered and de seeded.

1 Red Onion

1 Red Chilli

15g Mint Diced

50ml Olive Oil

Apple Cider Vinegar

Sal/ Pepper to taste

2 Green Chilli

Dice all onions, chilli and tomato as fine as possible. Not too chunky as your tacos will be small.

Add your olive oil, salt and pepper and add vinegar to taste. Finish with fresh mint. This can be made an hour beforehand and kept in the fridge.

Peruvian Aji Sauce. A dollop of good mayo, squeeze of lime and 2 tsp aji paste (you can find in most Asian and south American shops)

To assemble. Fry your corn tacos in hot oil for about 20 seconds to make a tostada. Or if you want them soft just quickly dry fry for about 10 seconds to make them pliable. 

Add your skewered lamb. Remove the stick. Liberal spoon of pico, a dollop of the beautiful yellow mayo. My new garnish of choice these days are fresh leek shoots or cress. They look amazing. Cheap and so tasty. This is a messy and fun meal. Looks great with all the colours going on. Remember the taco rule. You bring your mouth to the taco, not the taco to your mouth.

Wonderfully paired with a traditional Pisco Sour. Or a good Lager. For non-drinkers, a frosty glass of lime and mint cordial with soda water. Rim the glass first with a tiny bit of chilli salt for a fresh kick.