the plan was to thaw the tongue my neighbor gave me in a brine. then @two weeks more brine-ing in the back of the fridge. then boil, peel, and voila...corned cow tongue. but as usual the whole process made me antsy so i skipped the two week part, put the tongue and a well marbled shoulder in the big stock pot with water, onion, ginger, 1/4C sugar and fish sauce, 1T pepper corns. simmered 3-4 hours on the crab cooker outside on the kitchen porch. while i like the smell of a vietnamese restaurant, i don't particularly want my sheets to smell like a vietnamese restaurant. (san juan county won't pass my final inspection until i install kitchen venting. i don't want or need a vent. i cook stinky stuff outside. another story).
i've only had cow tongue twice. once at a market dedicated to meat in center city Oaxaca. grilled over a wood fire, chopped and sauced, wrapped in a warm corn tortilla with diced radish and a squeeze of lime. i got amoebic dysentery later that night. my second tongue experience happened more recently here a few years ago. we were shrimping off the west side of Spieden island in a boat that belonged to a guy name Victor. "you don't need to bring anything but your goddam license. you bought your goddam license didn't you?" Victor was a football coach at U of Oregon years ago. we're not exactly close friends. along with shrimping comes gov. regulations and expensive equipment. you are limited to a certain # of shrimp per licensed boat occupant. a mutually beneficial relationship. Victor gets to catch more shrimp. jay gets to eat fresh shrimp w/out spending over $100K for a boat like Victor's.
i've only had cow tongue twice. once at a market dedicated to meat in center city Oaxaca. grilled over a wood fire, chopped and sauced, wrapped in a warm corn tortilla with diced radish and a squeeze of lime. i got amoebic dysentery later that night. my second tongue experience happened more recently here a few years ago. we were shrimping off the west side of Spieden island in a boat that belonged to a guy name Victor. "you don't need to bring anything but your goddam license. you bought your goddam license didn't you?" Victor was a football coach at U of Oregon years ago. we're not exactly close friends. along with shrimping comes gov. regulations and expensive equipment. you are limited to a certain # of shrimp per licensed boat occupant. a mutually beneficial relationship. Victor gets to catch more shrimp. jay gets to eat fresh shrimp w/out spending over $100K for a boat like Victor's.
after setting 4 traps at 180 feet we had a hour for ling cod fishing. "you catch a goddam cod and i'll make some friggin sandwiches." the boat had a small galley with a two burner propane cook top. the smells got the better of me so i went to see what was coming together. Victor had sliced wafer thin slices of tongue and was warming a pile of it in a cast skillet. small white burger buns were warming on top of the meat. on the table a bowl of chopped onion, Best Foods mayo, salt & pepper, Stubbs bbq sauce, dill relish. "dill relish, got it? not that goddam sweet shit either. gotta be the real deal. and it's not sweet. the sweet stuff sucks." magnificent sandwiches piled high with tongue. extremely messy but just delicious.
i chilled the tongue and shoulder roast, strained and fat skimmed the broth, made rice noodles (the wide ones), and got condiments ready. a lime, some basil leaves, chopped scallions and serrano chilli, hoisin sauce. Victor's fillet knife was sharper than mine but i did my best to slice the tongue super thin. constructed bowl with noodles, stack of tongue, ladled broth, condiments. goddam. some might be put off by the idea of tongue. or just the texture might disagree with folks. it's rubbery in a meaty sumptuous way. kind of like if you could make a noodle out of meat. and tongue and hoisin are heavenly together.
i chilled the tongue and shoulder roast, strained and fat skimmed the broth, made rice noodles (the wide ones), and got condiments ready. a lime, some basil leaves, chopped scallions and serrano chilli, hoisin sauce. Victor's fillet knife was sharper than mine but i did my best to slice the tongue super thin. constructed bowl with noodles, stack of tongue, ladled broth, condiments. goddam. some might be put off by the idea of tongue. or just the texture might disagree with folks. it's rubbery in a meaty sumptuous way. kind of like if you could make a noodle out of meat. and tongue and hoisin are heavenly together.
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