Kidney Solyanka under Bechamel Sauce
The word solyanka is misleading here: this is not the sour soup most people know, but a bake in the older sense of the term — a dish built from salty, smoky, sharp odds and ends gathered under one crust. Veal kidneys, smoked pork belly, and dried porcini together make a dense, almost woodland base, which the bechamel smooths out to something restaurant-like.
Everything depends on prepping the kidneys. Halve them, cut out the pale ducts and every scrap of interior fat — those, not the meat itself, carry the sharp smell that gives offal its reputation. Half an hour of boiling handles the rest, and if you drain the water once it first boils and cover them with fresh, the flavor comes out clean and faintly nutty. For the pork belly, thick-cut smoked bacon or slab bacon is the closest supermarket equivalent.
Before the oven goes on
- The milk must be boiling and the roux still hot: two hot components come together under the whisk far more smoothly than hot meets cold.
- Salt only after the bacon has released its fat and salt into the pan, or you will overshoot.
- Thirty grams of dried porcini is about an ounce, which looks like nothing dry and swells into a generous handful once boiled — measure by weight, not by eye.
- Ten grams of cheese is enough for a thin browning veil, not a lid; a thick blanket keeps the sauce pale and loose underneath.
Part of Ukrainian cuisine — 464 more recipes in the section.
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Ingredients
Instructions
Trim the excess fat from the veal kidneys, cut them in half, remove the ducts, and boil for 30 minutes, then cut into small cubes.
Boil the mushrooms and cut them into thin strips.
Saute the pork belly with the onion, add the kidneys and mushrooms, and transfer to a baking dish.
Pour over the bechamel sauce, sprinkle with grated cheese, and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
Bechamel sauce
Bring the milk to a boil.Toast the flour in the butter until golden, pour in the boiling milk, and whisk quickly so there are no lumps.
Add ground black pepper and salt.
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