Chicken Hearts Tartare

Lots of discussion over tonight's offal offerings. Chicken Hearts Tartare, thanks in large part to Hunter Angler Gardener's recipe for wild duck hearts tartare. I'm not a hunter, I'm one of those inept people who get fed by hunters. But I recognize that and appreciate and applaud (and crave the results of) their efforts.That said, I thought, well, are chickens all that much different from wonderful wild fowl brought down in their prime? Yah, ok, I answered that question. So I re-adjusted my expectations and said, I have chicken hearts. What can I do with them?
Answer: Chicken Hearts Tartare

Recipe:
Serves 2 (can be doubled)

1 lb chicken hearts
2 garlic cloves
1 1/4" slice onion
1 radish
2 garlic-stuffed olives
4 t small capers
2 t lemon juice
dash lemon oil
1 t olive oil + to fry in + to drizzle
1/4 t mint bitters
1/4 t Tabasco
1/2 t dried tarragon
salt and pepper to taste
romaine lettuce leaves for service

Trim off the tops of the hearts with the fat and valves coming off. Clean out overtly coagulated blood, but no need to be obsessive about it. First picture (after the one of kitchen goddess Nadja with her tithe) shows the bag of hearts; the second shows the hearts after I've trimmed off the offending parts. There probably is something I could do with those, but I couldn't think what...

Mince the hearts into a bowl. I used a meat grinder, and then I minced what was left in the grinder by hand. You also could easily do the whole job by hand using a chef's knife.
Mince the onion, olives, and radish. Combine lemon juice, lemon oil, mint bitters and 1t olive oil. Picture shows the mint bitters, oil and lemon juice/oil, plus the capers and minced onion, radish, and olives. Stir the minced bits and the capers into the heart. Chill if needed (should be a bit cool). Gently stir in the juice, oil and mint bitters. Add the Tabasco and tarragon and salt and pepper and gently mix.

Finely slice the garlic. Saute in a generous amount of olive oil until toasted. Drain on paper towels.

Spread a couple of romaine lettuce leaves on each plate. Spoon the heart mixture over. Make a slight indentation and drizzle 1t olive oil over each serving. Sprinkle the toasted garlic bits over. Serve and sigh.

Eating Notes:

Another success. Use the leaves as a wrapper to pick up the heart tartare and resort to the fork only after you've run out of greenery.
If you had told me I'd ever take a bunch of raw chicken hearts, shove them through a meat grinder, mix them with a bunch of stuff and eat them just like that, I'd have said you were nuts. But here it was and it was really good. More tender than the best steak tartare I have ever had. Fortunately, nobody wants this stuff. Otherwise, how would I have been able to convert basically the heart output of a small slaughter into one really good dinner for two?