I hate to waste food.

I keep every chicken bone and vegetable scrap to make stock from and can be pretty resourceful spicing up leftovers. Waste not, want not.

But I’m not sure my dislike of food wastage extends to eating animal entrails.

The latest challenge in my Taste Le Tour journey led me to the uncharted world of offal with Steak and Kidney Casserole on the menu.

I was about as excited to cook this dish as Mark Cavendish is to climb an Alp.

Eating unappealing or unusual food seems to be a case of mind over matter. Because I never ate offal as a child, it seems repulsive to me. My only memory of eating anything out of the ordinary was ox-tongue, which my mother wisely told me was corned beef. Even though I thought it was the best ‘corned beef’ I had ever tasted, I was disgusted to find out that it was, in fact, tongue.

Despite dreading this dish, I took up the challenge. After all, you don’t know if you like something until you try it!

Gabriel Gaté’s recipe called for beef kidney, but I had to make do with lamb’s. Kidney is kidney, right?

With no idea how to tackle these little beasts, I turned to the ever-faithful internet. Armed with a YouTube tutorial and feeling like I was in a high-school biology class, I sliced them open and removed the white interior.

The rest of the casserole preparation was easy. Brown some onion, chop a few carrots, mix some tomatoes and red wine, add the chopped kidney and steak and bang it in the oven. Come back a few hours later, and voila!

How was it?

Well….the bread was good!

The texture of the kidney was off-putting, slightly rubbery and easily identifiable in a mouthful of casserole. While the kidneys didn’t have an overwhelming flavour, the fact that I’m not a fan of beef casserole meant that I found the whole dish unappetizing.

However, I think if I hadn’t had to prepare the kidneys myself then they would have been much easier to stomach!

It’s time for British food to stop crashing my French party, with the Tour finally crossing the channel tomorrow! Good bye Britain, hello French cheese!

View other blogs on my Taste Le Tour French cooking journey here.