Sheeps' brain fry / qallayat mukh / قلاية مخ

I improvised this dish a few weeks ago after being assaulted by a powerful hunger for brains. No. I'm not a zombie. It's just that I recently returned from a trip to India where I ate brain curry/brain fry no less than 8 times in a few weeks. I love the stuff, even though its not really that good for you (cholesterol).

My friends and I had a little dinner party and I picked up some frozen brain from Chicago Zabiha Halal meat market at 2243 W Devon Ave. The Moroccan owner is a really genial guy and I've been buying a lot of lamb and assorted parts from him. Being that he is missing a lot of teeth, the guy knows his way around cooking brain (hint, its soft) so I took him for his word when he said it should be prepared simply with chile peppers, onions, maybe some tomato and spices.

I started with his advice, that I use the brain straight out of the package, rather than parboiling first (as some Arabic recipes for fried brain, not brain fry, suggest). I used chiles, onions and spices, but no tomatoes and added a few South Asian touches to mimic the brain fry I was eating in India.

2 Sheeps' brains (fresh or frozen, the former preferred).
1 Onion, chopped fine.
4 cloves garlic, chopped.
1 thumb ginger, chopped fine.
1-2 jalapeno/serrano/whatever hot peppers chopped. Just make it hot, son.
1 tablespoon tomato paste.
1 tablespoon paprika (Hungarian please).
1 heaping tablespoon garam masala or baharat or whatever spice mix you use.
Salt to taste.

Garnish:
1 onion, finely slivered.
1 big handful mint, chopped.
1 big handful cilantro, chopped.
Juice of one big lime.
Sprinkle paprika.
Hot peppers, chopped, to taste.

Prepare Brain.


Fry onions, garlic, ginger until brown, slowly. About 15-20 minutes. Add spices and tomato paste. Ignore the bay leaf, useless.


Slice brain small and add to fry mixture. Fry for 20 minutes on medium heat, until brain is smooth and incorporated into sauce. Taste. Add salt.





Prepare garnish by mixing ingredients and allowing to sit for a few minutes.



Eat with bread, preferably lavash or rumali roti. Enjoy!



Sahtein,

Habibi

*edited numerous times because I'm too hasty.

Habibi, if I had a car today I'd be making a Devon run! That looks incredible.

Couple questions - are lamb brains at all tallowy, or are they similar to cow brains - delicate and slightly livery?

When you purchase them, is the membrane removed for you?

Last night Debbie and I stopped off at a new Pakistani resto which just opened a month or so ago in the neighborhood. (It's conveniently located directly across the street from Montréal's finest neighborhood Pakistani grocery and halal butcher—we noticed that all of the other tables were loaded down, as were we!, with sacks from the store : ) On the menu we noticed a brain masala, which I was sorely tempted to order, although The Other Dr. Gale advised me that I would have to eat it alone. So I didn't order it. [Yes, Michele, no guts, no glory... ]

After reading your piece here Habibi, I'm definitely going to order it next time, esp. since I like brain. Any idea what brain masala would be like? how prepared, texture, etc?

Geo

Mhays wrote:Couple questions - are lamb brains at all tallowy, or are they similar to cow brains - delicate and slightly livery?

When you purchase them, is the membrane removed for you?

The brains I purchased were previously frozen and came cryovaced, two to a package. When I removed them from the package they kinda fell apart. Apparently freezing then thawing brain really destroys its structural integrity. Not a problem for a dish like this, but if you want to make Arabic breaded and fried brain, you probably need to use fresh pieces that are more solid. Unless I'm mistaken, Sahar II on Kedzie carries fresh brain from time to time.

The membrane was removed from the brains I purchased. They did not seem particularly tallowy, but it was hard to tell given their state. The flavor was very delicate and livery, and the texture was creamy. They were absolutely delicious.

One thing I didn't mention in the recipe - the brain kinda overwhelmed the sauce. I upped the amount of onions and when I wrote the recipe, but on second thought, it might be better to use less brain, more fry.

Geo wrote:
After reading your piece here Habibi, I'm definitely going to order it next time, esp. since I like brain. Any idea what brain masala would be like? how prepared, texture, etc?

Geo

Brain masala/brain fry were the same thing based on my experience ordering India. That approach probably uses ground onions, garlic and ginger because the masala is smooth, kinda like the masala you might find used in a masala ghosht (goat) dish. Cooked properly, the brain is really creamy and kinda blends into the sauce, yielding a surprisingly mild (in terms of offal, not spice) and thick masala that is perfect with fresh bread.

Thanks, Habibi - this is on my must-try list!

Please post when you do. I'm excited to see how this dish can be improved.

I haven't had brains in a long while and miss them. Thanks for the great reminder.

I've never bought 'frozen' brains - though it's possible (and I didn't think about it) that what I got may have been previously frozen. The last time I got brains was in Chicago. When visiting a friend in Palos Hill (or Heights) somewhere there at a middle eastern grocery around 87th and Harlem. I looked on googlemaps and can't get the place. The closest I got was this place

Al-Amal Bakery & Grocery‎
7289 West 87th Street,
Bridgeview, IL‎
(708) 237-2625‎

Can't tell from streetview if that's the one. But in that area there were two good grocers - one is on the same side of the street and next to a sweet shop (there's also a restaurant a few doors down).
The other is on the other side of the street - on the same side and as a dollar theatre. The latter is where I have gotten brains (both carried testicles and good sausages).

I would imagine frozen brains (if frozen rapidly) would be good though may turn slightly mushy on cooking. Not an issue for the sort of dish that you cooked.
For "fresh" brains, a quick soak in cold acidulated water helps firm it a bit, the better to remove any blood vessels if needed. A quick poach will also firm it up. I mention this because my gold standard for brains and what I was trying to replicate from my memory of a dish at a small restaurant in Pune, India is a tomato based almost makkhani type gravy/sauce with a half-brain gently simmered. The large size retains a soft, scrambled egg consistency, separate from but still harmonious with the gravy.
The poached brain can be cut into thick slices and simmered in gravy.

Now I'm hankering for some. Thanks for the memories.
I suppose I'll have to go to the halal grocer here - fresh goat comes in this evening, at least I'll get liver and kidneys for a nice fry.

I know I've hunted for brains and seen some awful greenish rubbish at the 55th St. Coop waaay bac - that may have started me on the hunt and I've seen it in other places... ah, here it is

No...no....no....and no I just can't see me eating brains. It's just a thing with me I guess!

Fresh post-Easter lamb brains on sale at Fresh Farms! More later!

(from Sparky: what to vegetarian zombies eat? Graaaains.)

Which Fresh Farms?

It's gonna be breaded fried brain and pickled eggplant for me this weekend!

Thanks for the heads up.

Sorry - the one on Touhy near the Wal-Mart - though I would guess they all have them - you might call the closest one to you first. If you are having trouble finding them, go past the lamb chops, they're between the rolled seasoned lamb leg portions and the rows of packaged lamb kidneys, intestines, and 'splines' (apparently these lambs have internal graphic design mechanisms) If you reach the lamb heads, you've gone too far - I kid you not. (Baahaah!)

Even if I never cook them, it was totally worth the money for the look on the spouse's face when he unpacked the groceries...but brain fry is in my future, definitely!

Fresh Farms
5740 West Touhy Ave.
Niles, IL 60714
(847) 779-7343
Monday - Sunday 7am - 10pm

2626 West Devon Ave.
Chicago, IL 60659
(773) 764-3557
Monday - Thursday 7am - 10pm
Friday - Sunday 7am - 11pm

291 East Dundee Ave.
Wheeling, IL 60090
(847) 215-2663
Monday - Saturday 7:30am -10pm
Sunday 7:30am - 9pm

Habibi wrote:
Thanks for the heads up.

hahahaha--good one

Devon Market carries lamb brains in their meat case. I know they aren't vac-packed but rather packaged like the rest of their meat products. I assume they're fresh.

Habibi, I've owed you this post for quite some time - as you may recall, I found lamb brains at Fresh Farms at around Easter-time, and immediately brought some home.

I thought I might have a shot at getting Sparky to try them, so I omitted a lot of the heat-bearing spices (I did use Garam Masala which has a bit of heat to it) I also was in kind of a hurry, so I whipped up the sauce quickly (it's really not all that different from my Masala Curry sauce, when it comes right down to it - so I wasn't out of my element) Since the lamb brains were so tiny and delicate, I plopped them right into the sauce to poach, breaking them up gently with a spoon (if you're squeamish, you shouldn't be reading this thread anyway, but don't say I didn't warn you.)



Unfortunately, Sparky - who was all over trying brains - realized at this point that they were the brains of baby sheep and wanted nothing to do with them - so I used the sauce on some cauliflower for him (ordinarily, I don't make an extra meal for my kid, but I figured this was kind of high-stakes and decided to let him alone.) He did say he'd have tried mutton brains, so I'll keep my eye out for them.



They were delicious - I had a bit of the opposite problem, the lamb brains were so delicate that I mostly tasted sauce, but the texture was incredible; like a really smooth but hard-set custard.



Thanks for the recipe and encouragement!

Habibi--

Last night Debbie (The Other Doctor Gale of fame & repute! and I went back to our superb local Pakistani resto. I ordered Brains masala. TODG and our friend Kevin from Whitewater WI refused to try the dish. I, on the other hand, flat out slurped it up: wonderfully creamy (as Michelle says above, well-set custard), plus subtle spicing and some excellent crunchy vegetables and lots of fresh herbs. I *really* liked it. It's on my permanent menu. Tnx for your encouragement.

Michelle, sorry that Sparky balked. But I suspect that this was merely a momentary blink in his excellent trajectory.

Geo

Mhays, Geo

Thanks for the shout out. Dem brainz is good eatin'.

You should try them blanched and fried sometime. If I make it I'll be sure to post with recipes and pictures.

H

Geo wrote:Michelle, sorry that Sparky balked. But I suspect that this was merely a momentary blink in his excellent trajectory.

Geo

LOL, thanks, Geo - have to say it tickled me that the issue was the youth of our meal, not its contents. Sparky is adamant in not eating baby or baby-like warm-blooded animals of any kind - no quail, no cornish hen, no piglets, and the only reason he's had lamb is because in most cases it's not identifiable as a baby (itty-bitty brains don't really leave anything to the imagination.) He's slowly increasing his tolerance of chili, and now eats orange vegetables (albeit with a grimace) so I figure I'll give him that one.

Apparently all this recipe really needed was potatoes...