Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2
Page 28
1 cup tongue-cooking stock; more if needed
1 cup rich beef stock or bouillon; more if needed
½ cup currants (small, black, seedless raisins)
1 imported bay leaf
A cover for the pan
Pour the wine or vermouth into the mirepoix and boil down rapidly until reduced by ⅓ of its volume. Then add the cup of tongue stock, the beef stock or bouillon, currants, bay leaf, and peeled onions. Bring to simmer, cover pan, and simmer very slowly for 40 to 60 minutes, or until onions are tender. (Add more liquid if needed; you should end up with about 2 cups.)
3 Tb strong Dijon-type prepared mustard blended to a paste with 1 Tb cornstarch in a small bowl
Salt and pepper
2 to 3 Tb soft butter
When onions are tender, remove from heat; gradually beat about ½ cup of their cooking liquid into the mustard and cornstarch mixture. Fold mixture into onions, and when smoothly blended, return over heat; simmer 2 minutes. Sauce should be lightly thickened. Carefully correct seasoning, and set aside. Reheat just before serving; remove from heat, and fold in the butter, a half tablespoon at a time.
3) Slicing the tongue, and serving
When slicing the tongue, try for even pieces ⅜ inch thick and as uniform in diameter as possible: place the hot tongue on a carving board and cut several vertical slices off the thick end; then, continuing at the thick end, start gradually slicing on the bias, angling the back of your knife progressively down toward the board as you come off the hump; your blade will be almost horizontal as you reach the tip of the tongue.
Either arrange the slices of tongue down the center of a hot, lightly buttered, oval platter, spoon a little sauce with raisins and onions over the tongue, decorate sides with green vegetables, and pass rest of sauce separately, or arrange the slices of tongue against a mound of puréed chestnuts or mashed potatoes, spoon a little sauce over each slice, surround with onions, raisins, and the rest of the sauce, and pass the vegetables separately.
OTHER SAUCES TO SERVE WITH BOILED TONGUE
Tomato sauces, brown sauces, white sauces, and oil and vinegar sauces all go well with boiled tongue. With one exception, these come from Volume I. Use tongue-cooking broth boiled down or fortified, if necessary, with chicken stock or beef bouillon for the liquids called for in the various recipes.
Tomato Sauces
The classic tomato sauce in Volume I on page 76, the excellent Provençal sauce with fresh tomatoes following it, or an alternate using canned tomatoes here in Volume II.
Brown Sauces
Pick any of the brown sauces in Volume I, pages 71 to 76. Particularly recommended are the sauce piquante with pickles and capers, the sauce brune au cari, brown curry sauce, the sauce chasseur with mushrooms, tomatoes, and herbs, and the sauce à l’Italienne with ham and mushrooms.
White Sauces
Sauce au cari—a light curry sauce with onions, cream, and lemon, Volume I, page 63.
Sauce soubise—an excellent onion sauce, to which you may add 2 to 3 tablespoons of chopped capers and minced parsley, if you wish, Volume I, page 64.
Sauce aux câpres, sauce à la moutarde, sauce aux anchors—Caper, Mustard, or Anchovy Sauce, easy to make, and all variations of the mock hollandaise, sauce au beurre, Volume I, page 64.
Oil and Vinegar Sauces
Sauce de Sorges—a delicious and unusual herbal mayonnaise made with shallots, capers, and soft-boiled eggs, Volume I, page 93, for tongue served either hot or cold.
Sauce ravigote—vinaigrette with onions and capers, or the two variations following it, one with sour cream and dill, the other with mustard—all three good for tongue served hot or cold, Volume I, page 95.
LANGUE DE BOEUF BRAISÉE, AU MADÈRE
[Beef Tongue Braised Whole, Madeira Sauce]
When you want a splendid presentation and have an able carver at the table, braise the tongue whole and present it glazed in its sauce and surrounded by a handsome display of vegetables. We suggest a garniture of glazed carrots, onions, and turnips, and whole baby mushrooms—all fresh vegetables, because of their fine taste and texture. A red Bordeaux-Médoc would be your best choice of wine.
For 6 to 8 people
1) Preliminaries to braising—2 hours of soaking; 2 hours of boiling
A fully trimmed fresh beef tongue weighing about 4 lbs.
Follow directions to scrub, soak, salt if you wish, and simmer the tongue for 2 hours; peel it.
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: This may be done the day before braising.
2) Braising the tongue—2 hours at 350 to 325 degrees
1 cup each of sliced carrots and onions
¼ cup diced mild-cured boiled ham (such as a supermarket ham slice)
3 Tb butter
A heavy, covered, flame-proof casserole just large enough to hold tongue comfortably
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook vegetables and ham with butter for about 10 minutes in covered casserole over moderately low heat, stirring frequently, until vegetables are tender and beginning to brown lightly.
Salt and pepper
The peeled beef tongue
Salt and pepper the tongue and place in the casserole, turning and basting it with the vegetables and butter. Cover casserole and let tongue sweat (suer) over moderately low heat for 10 minutes; turn the tongue, baste again, cover casserole, and sweat it 10 minutes more. (If tongue was refrigerated, double the number of minutes.)
⅓ cup dry Madeira (Sercial)
½ cup dry white wine or dry white French vermouth
Optional, to improve flavor and texture of sauce:
A cup or so of chopped or sawed veal knuckle bones and/or beef marrow bones
A piece of blanched pork rind 6 inches square
1 whole washed tomato, unpeeled, roughly chopped
1 large clove of garlic, unpeeled, halved
1 imported bay leaf
½ tsp thyme
1 or more cups rich beef stock or beef bouillon
A sheet of pork rind or beef suet ¼ inch thick and large enough to cover tongue; or washed cheesecloth
Pour the Madeira and the wine or vermouth into the casserole; boil down rapidly until liquid has almost evaporated. Strew optional bones and the pork rind around the tongue, along with the tomato, garlic, and herbs. Pour in enough stock or bouillon to come ⅔ the way up the tongue. Cover tongue with fat or cheesecloth, bring liquid in casserole to the simmer, cover casserole, and set in lower-middle level of preheated oven. In 20 minutes, check to see that liquid in casserole is simmering slowly and steadily; lift fat or cloth and baste tongue rapidly with liquid in casserole. Turn thermostat down to 325 degrees. Baste tongue several times again during cooking, and when it has braised 1 hour, turn on its other side, covering again with fat or cheesecloth. Tongue should be done in 2 to 2½ hours, when a knife will pierce the meat easily; do not overcook. (While tongue is braising, prepare vegetable garnish; although the vegetables may braise with the tongue, we find it easier to cook them separately.)
3) The vegetable garnish
24 to 32 small fresh white onions 1 to 1¼ inches in diameter
A saucepan of boiling water
A wide (9- to 10-inch) saucepan, chicken fryer, or electric skillet, and a cover for the pan
1 to 1½ cups water
Salt
3 Tb butter
10 to 12 fine, fresh medium-sized carrots, all of a size
10 to 12 firm fresh white turnips all of a size, 2 to 2½ inches in diameter
Drop onions into boiling water, bring rapidly back to the boil for exactly 1 minute; drain. Shave off tops and bottoms, and peel the onions; pierce a cross ⅓ inch deep in the root ends for even cooking. Place in pan with the water, salt, and butter; bring to the simmer, cover, and simmer slowly while preparing the carrots. Rapidly peel the carrots, quarter them lengthwise, cut into 1½-inch lengths, trim off sharp edges, and add to the simmering onions. Then rapidly peel the turnips, quarter them, trim off sharp edges, and add to the pa
n after onions have cooked 20 minutes. Continue to simmer slowly until vegetables are tender (about 20 minutes longer), adding a little more water if all has evaporated. Correct seasoning, and set aside.
1 quart (about ¾ lb.) fresh button mushrooms (or larger fresh mushrooms, quartered)
A large (11-inch) frying pan
2 Tb butter and ½ Tb cooking oil
2 Tb minced shallots or scallions
Salt and pepper
Trim the mushrooms, wash rapidly, and dry in a towel. Set frying pan over moderately high heat with the butter and oil. When butter foam is beginning to subside, add the mushrooms; sauté 3 to 4 minutes, tossing frequently, shaking and swirling the pan by its handle until mushrooms are just beginning to brown lightly. Toss for a moment with the shallots or scallions, season to taste, scrape into a side dish, and reserve.
4) Sauce and serving
A hot, lightly buttered platter
A sieve set over a saucepan
¼ cup dry Madeira (Sercial)
1 Tb arrowroot (buy at a fancy food shop or in a pharmacy), or cornstarch, in a small bowl
A wire whip and rubber spatula
Salt and pepper
3 to 4 Tb soft butter
Parsley sprigs
When tongue is tender, remove to platter, cover, and keep warm in turned-off oven (or warming oven at 120 degrees) while finishing the sauce. Pour contents of casserole through sieve, pressing juices out of braising ingredients. Skim surface fat off liquid in saucepan, and bring liquid to the simmer, skimming. You should have about 2 cups.
Blend the Madeira into the arrowroot or cornstarch; remove cooking liquid from heat and blend the wine mixture into it. When smooth, return saucepan to heat and fold in the cooked onions, carrots, turnips, and mushrooms along with any of their cooking juices. Simmer, swirling pan by its handle and gently turning vegetables in sauce for 4 to 5 minutes. Sauce should be thick enough to coat the tongue nicely; carefully correct seasoning. Just before serving, fold in the enrichment butter, half a tablespoon at a time, gently basting vegetables with sauce until butter is absorbed.
Arrange the tongue humped side up on the platter, glaze it with spoonfuls of the sauce, and arrange the vegetables around it, basting both tongue and vegetables with remaining sauce. Decorate with parsley sprigs, and serve immediately.
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: If you are not ready to serve when tongue is tender, complete the sauce but omit the final butter enrichment. Return tongue, sauce, and vegetable garnish to casserole; cover tongue again with its fat or cheesecloth, put on casserole cover slightly askew, and set in a 120-degree oven, or over simmering water. Tongue will stay warm safely for a good hour. If sauce has thickened too much when you are ready to serve, thin it out with a little stock or bouillon.
Other sauces, flavorings, garnitures
You may braise tongue with any of the flavorings and garnishings you would use for beef; you might even slice it after its preliminary 2-hour boiling and peeling, re-form it with a mushroom stuffing between each slice, and then braise it, as for the sliced and stuffed tenderloin of beef en feuilletons. The garniture à la bourgeoise, of onions, mushrooms, and olives, would be attractive, as would some of the variations following beef stew. Particularly recommended among these are the pistou and the Provençal flavorings, the pipérade with its peppers and tomatoes, and the final suggestion here, for ginger, capers, and herbs. For any of these suggestions, the general cooking procedure for the tongue follows the same pattern and timing as the Master Recipe; you are simply substituting other flavorings.
TONGUE BRAISED IN SLICES
Tongue is much easier to prepare and serve when you braise it in slices after its preliminary 2-hour boil and its peeling. Sliced tongue cooks in 30 to 40 minutes, the flavor of the sauce penetrates the meat beautifully, and sliced tongue lends itself to prearrangements, precooking, and numerous ahead-of-time maneuvers that are not possible with whole tongue. Using the general method of the following recipe, you can add sliced tongue to cook with the brown mustard sauce, pearl onions, and raisins in the boiled tongue recipe, or use one of the ideas either in the preceding paragraph or in those suggested for boiled tongue.
LANGUE DE BOEUF BRAISÉE, CALCUTTA
[Sliced Fresh Beef Tongue Braised with Curry]
French curry sauce does not have the strong, mouth-searing quality of Indian curry; the French version is more a flavor than an experience, because if the curry were strong it would ruin the accompanying wine. You might serve this tongue on a bed of mashed potatoes, rice, or braised spinach, on a purée of peas or lentils, or on the purée of squash and white beans. Your own fresh French bread could take the place of a second vegetable. For wines, a red Bordeaux would go nicely, or a rather strong dry white like a Hermitage, from the Rhône valley.
For 6 to 8 people
1) Preliminaries to braising—2 hours of soaking; 2 hours of boiling
A fully trimmed fresh beef tongue weighing about 4 lbs.
Follow directions, to scrub, soak, salt if you wish, and simmer the tongue for 2 hours; peel it.
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: This may be done the day before braising.
2) The braising sauce
2 cups sliced onions
2 Tb butter and ½ Tb cooking oil (more if needed)
A 10- to 12-inch casserole, chicken fryer, or electric skillet
About 2 Tb fragrant curry powder (depending on its strength and your inclinations)
2 Tb flour
Cook the onions slowly in the butter and oil over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 8 to 10 minutes until tender and translucent but not browned. Blend in the curry powder and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Blend in the flour, and a little more butter or oil if flour makes too stiff a paste; cook, stirring, for 2 minutes more. Remove from heat.
2 to 3 cups heated meat stock (a combination of beef stock or bouillon and tongue-cooking stock or chicken broth)
A wire whip
1 cup dry white wine or ⅔ cup dry white French vermouth
2 large cloves garlic, mashed
¼ cup currants (small black seedless raisins)
1 peeled and diced sour cooking apple (or an eating apple and 1 Tb lemon juice)
½ tsp thyme
1 imported bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste
When casserole contents have stopped bubbling, pour in 2 cups of the hot stock and blend vigorously into the onions, curry, and flour with wire whip. Pour in the wine or vermouth; add the garlic, currants, diced apple, thyme, and bay leaf. Bring to the simmer, stirring, and simmer 2 minutes. Sauce should be lightly thickened. Taste carefully, and correct seasoning.
3) Braising the tongue—30 to 40 minutes
Cut the peeled tongue into even slices ⅜ inch thick. (Directions for slicing are in Step 3, in the Master Recipe for boiled tongue.) Arrange the slices in the casserole, overlapping as necessary, and baste the tongue with the sauce.
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: Recipe may be prepared in advance to this point; when cool, cover surface with plastic wrap, a cover, and refrigerate.
Bring to the simmer, cover, and simmer 30 to 40 minutes, tilting casserole and basting tongue several times with the sauce. When tender if pierced with a fork, meat is done, but do not overcook; eat a piece if you have any doubts about its being done.
4) Serving
A hot, lightly buttered serving platter
Optional: ⅓ to ½ cup crème fraîche or heavy cream
Salt, pepper, and drops of lemon juice
1 to 3 Tb soft butter
A hot gravy bowl
If needed: fresh minced parsley
When tongue is done, arrange the hot slices on the platter (or over a bed of vegetables if you wish); cover and keep warm while you finish the sauce. You should have 1½ to 2 cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon nicely. Stir in optional cream; boil down if sauce is too thin or, conversely, add a little more stock if it seems too thick. Taste carefully, stirring in more salt, pepper, and d
rops of lemon juice if you feel them necessary. Just before serving, remove sauce from heat, and swish in the enrichment butter a half tablespoon at a time. Spoon hot sauce over the slices of tongue, and pour rest of sauce into hot serving bowl. (You may strain the sauce; the onions and optional raisins, however, give it an attractive informal look and texture.) Decorate tongue with parsley, if you wish, and serve immediately.
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: You may complete the sauce except for the final butter enrichment; return tongue slices to sauce, and baste them with it. Reheat to bubbling hot before serving, but be careful not to overcook the tongue.
VEAL, PORK, AND LAMB TONGUES
Veal, pork, and lamb tongues have the same consistency as beef tongue, and although they do not have quite the same fine flavor you may substitute them for beef tongue in any of the preceding recipes. Braising is particularly recommended, because the braising stock adds the flavor that these tongues lack. Here are notes on each.
VEAL TONGUES
Weights and measures. These will weigh 6 to 8 ounces on the average, and will be 5 to 6 inches long, although tongues from large carcasses can weigh up to 1¼ pounds. Count on one 6- to 8-ounce tongue per person, or 2 tongues for 3 people.