Beef tongue with lemongrass chili sauce
Inspired by the South American beef tongue in vinaigrette and Thai fried egg salad (yum khai dao), this is a dish of thinly sliced boiled beef tongue soaked in a sweet, salty and spicy sauce.
Servings 4 people
Ingredients
Beef tongue
- 1 beef tongue about one kilogram / 2.2 pounds in weight
- rock salt
- 3 slices ginger
- 1 bunch scallions bottom part of the stalks only
- 3 cloves garlic
Lemongrass chili sauce
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 6 tablespoons calamansi juice (or lemon or lime juice)
- 4 tablespoons palm sugar (honey works too)
- 2 tablespoons sliced lemongrass
- 2 shallots (or one small red onion) peeled and thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic peeled and chopped
- 1 bird's chili thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons sliced scallions dark green portion only
Instructions
- Scrub the beef tongue with rock salt repeatedly to remove the sliminess. Rinse well.
- Place the tongue in a pot, cover with water, add the ginger, scallions, garlic and two tablespoons of rock salt.
- Bring to the boil, skim off any scum that rises, lower the heat, cover and simmer until tender.
- Scoop out the tongue and rest on a rack until cool.
- Peel off the skin and discard.
- Wrap the tongue with cling film and keep in the fridge overnight.
- Unwrap the tongue and, while cold, cut into thin slices.
- Arrange the slices in an overlapping fashion on a serving plate. If you don't want to serve the meat chilled, stick the plate in the microwave and heat on high for two to three minutes.
- To make the sauce, whisk the fish sauce, calamansi juice and palm sugar until the sugar is fully dissolved.
- Stir in the lemongrass, shallot, garlic, chili and scallions.
- Spoon the sauce and vegetables over the beef tongue.
- Optionally, garnish with torn basil. Serve at chilled or at room temperature.
