Cook’s notes
How long the beef tongue needs to cook depends on the age of the animal. Since the cooking liquid will evaporate during the long and slow cooking, you will need to replenish it every hour or so.
If you want a more convenient way of cooking beef tongue, use a pressure cooker or a slow cooker. I prefer the slow cooker where I cook a kilogram of beef tongue on LOW for about eight hours.
Lengua al ajillo (Spanish-style beef tongue with garlic)
Ingredients
- 1 kilogram beef tongue (2.2 pounds)
- rock salt
- 3 tablespoons vinegar
- ½ teaspoon peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- 125 grams butter (4.4 oz)
- 6 cloves garlic peeled and thinly sliced
- ¼ cup sweet white wine
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- ground pepper to taste
- sliced scallions to garnish
Instructions
- Rinse the beef tongue, rub all over with plenty of rock salt then rinse again.
- Boil about ten cups of water in a pot and add the vinegar (don’t worry, you won’t taste the vinegar in the cooked dish).
- Plunge the beef tongue in the boiling water and leave until the water boils again. Count ten minutes then drain and rinse the beef tongue.
- Place the beef tongue in a clean pot, cover with clean water, add two tablespoons rock salt, peppercorns and bay leaves, and bring to the boil.
- Cover the pot, set the heat to low and simmer for four to six hours.
- Scoop out the beef tongue, cool, wrap in cling film and chill overnight (this makes slicing easier and neater).
- Take the beef tongue out of the fridge, unwrap and peel off the skin (if the tongue is cooked sufficiently, it will easily come off).
- Cut the beef tongue into slices about half an inch thick.
- Melt two tablespoons of butter in a frying pan.
- Lightly brown the beef tongue slices in the butter. Flip them over to brown the opposite side.
- Arrange the beef tongue on a serving plate.
- Add another third of the butter to the pan. Throw in the garlic slices and cook over medium-low heat, scraping the bottom of the pan, until lightly browned.
- Turn up the heat to high and pour in the wine. Boil, uncovered, until reduced by half.
- Turn down the heat and add the remaining butter. Swirl the pan around to melt.
- Off the heat, stir in the lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Stir. Taste. Add more salt, pepper or lemon juice to suit your preference.
- Spoon the sauce over the beef tongue. Spread the garlic on top.
- Garnish with sliced scallions and serve your lengua al ajillo.
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