Sweetbreads make a welcomed return courtesy of food blogger and twitter follower James Ramsden.

Thank you very much to James for this recipe and if you’ve not given sweetbreads a try they are a must for a speedy supper.

Sweetbreads are some of the less familiar pieces of offal, but they shouldn’t be. Much offal can be rich and strong and something of an acquired taste. Sweetbreads are mild and, well, sweet. In fact they’re so light and delicate that it wasn’t until after about 5 minutes that my friend turned to me and asked, “is this meat? I thought it was bread.”
This really is an incredibly simple dish but you’ll knock your guests’ socks off with it.
Serves 4 as a starter
2 calves’ sweetbreads
A shallot, peeled and halved
A stick of celery
Herbs – whatever’s kicking about
White wine
Flour
Radishes (with their tops, if possible), washed and quartered
25g butter
Sherry vinegar
Salt, pepper, oil
- Soak the sweetbreads in cold water for half an hour and drain. Bring a pan of water to the boil with a splosh of wine, the herbs, shallot and celery. Add a pinch of salt and add the sweetbreads. Gently poach for ten minutes – barely at a simmer – and remove with a slotted spoon to kitchen paper. Cool.
- Peel the membrane from the glands and slice to about the thickness of a slender pinkie. Pat thoroughly dry with kitchen paper and toss in flour. Heat a little oil in a non-stick frying pan and fry the sweetbreads for a couple of minutes on each side, seasoning with salt and pepper. The outsides should be crisp and golden without being too caramelised.
- Remove to a plate and add a splash of vinegar. Scrape up any bits left on the pan and add the butter and quartered radishes. Season and keep swishing around the pan until the butter is melted and the radishes are warmed through. Throw in the radish tops, if you have them (rocket will do nicely otherwise) and merely show them the pan. Remove from the heat.

Thank you very much to James for this tasty recipe and remember if you have been cooking with any of our products and want to share the recipes, send them to us at web@donaldrussell.com

Talk soon,

This delicious recipe was featured on the talented Gourmet Travellers blog who you can also find on twitter.
To read more by our foodie friend check out the blog,

Thank you very much to the for this great example of taking a humble cut, adding some fresh thinking and creating a truly memorable dish! Take it away Gourtmet Traveller...

"Javanese Oxtail Soup
Serves 4 as a starter, 2 as a main
800g – 1kg (2lb) oxtail pieces
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2-3 thick slices of ginger, bashed
2 spring onions, whites only, bashed
1/2 whole nutmeg, cracked
1 tsp white peppercorns
1/2 tsp salt
15 cloves
Soup base:
2 carrots, cut into thirds
1 stalk of celery, cut into thirds
2 leeks, whites only, cut into thirds
1/2 whole nutmeg, cracked
1 tsp white peppercorns
1 carrot, finely cubed
1 stalk of celery, finely cubed
1 small potato, finely cubed
handful of celery leaves, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, deseeded and finely cubed
2 spring onions, green part only, finely sliced
1 green chilli, deseeded and sliced (optional)
1 tsp light soy sauce
1-2 shallots, thinly sliced
2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a saucepan and sizzle the ginger and spring onions. Once fragrant, add the oxtail pieces and brown on all sides. Once sealed pour over water to cover and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Drain the oxtail and refresh under cold water. Discard the ginger and spring onion.
Place the soup base ingredients in the stockpot and fill with 2 litres (8 cups) of water. Bring to the boil, then turn down to simmer for 15-20 minutes.
Remove all the vegetables and spices to leave a clear stock. Place in the oxtail, salt, clove and new nutmeg and peppercorns (you may wish to wrap the spices up in muslin for easy removal later). Bring the stock to a boil then turn down to a low, cover, then leave to gently simmer for 2-3 hours.
Once the oxtail is tender, remove from the heat and spoon off the oil on the surface. Add in the all remaining ingredients, except for the chilli, shallots and oil. Put back on the fire and continue to simmer, uncovered for 30-45 minutes.
While the soup is cooking, heat the remaining oil in a small saucepan and fry the shallots until crisp and golden. Drain on kitchen paper and set aside.
Once ready to serve, remove the nutmeg and cloves, stir in the sliced green chillies (if using) and season to taste. Place some oxtail in each serving bowl and ladle over the soup. Sprinkle over the crispy shallots and serve."

We would like to thank the Gourmet Traveller for sharing this great recipe with us all. Don’t forget we love reading and trying out new recipes with our produce and are always on the look out for more. So if you have a favourite dish using our products send recipe to us at web@donaldrussell.com and we can let our Head chef Stefan do the cooking while we do the tasting!!

Hi everyone, we always thought we had the best steak burgers around but after our Managing Director Hans returned from a recent trip to America, he said he had a better steak burger there and we realised we needed to go back to the butchers block.

He challenged us to create a steak burger to rival the professionals in America and trust us they know a thing or two about the mighty burger.

Further to Hans’ challenge we stepped up to the mark and have been working hard to create the most delicious steak burgers we can. This has resulted in many burger tasting sessions, and as you can imagine we had no shortage of volunteers to undertake this task!

We have taste tested a variety of grinds (grind refers to how much we mince the beef) to have finally arrived at the ultimate steak burger. They’re not unlike eating a good steak, with a course texture you can really taste the difference. They have a fantastic eating quality which passed the “fork test” - they are so tender they can be cut up with a fork alone.

Due to our steak burgers being made in-house we have full control over the quality, we are so proud to say they are made using one thing and one thing only - 100% grass-fed, naturally reared beef. As they are pure beef they are great cooked to medium just as you would cook a steak. Our steak burgers have no flavour enhancers, no preservatives, no seasoning, no added fat, and no binding agents, so you can enjoy an entirely natural flavour.

You might have noticed our new and improved steak burgers are something we are all very proud of here and why not? We are all really passionate about great meat and our steak burgers are certainly worth writing home about!

Remember it’s that easy –bring to room temperature, cook, rest and season to your liking. Now what could be more effortless this summer?

Don’t forget to check out my tips for simple, straightforward cooking.

Regards, Stefan