Steve's Beef Tongue

Serve with Fruit Compote and Wild Rice Pilaf or Tongue Tacos.

• 2 large beef tongues
• 8 medium onions - peeled and cut in half with ends removed
• 3 large stalks celery - cut into 3" pieces
• 1 large head peeled garlic - smashed
• 12 bay leaves
• 1 package (5 large branches) fresh thyme
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 Tbl salt

Fill a large pot with water so that when the tongue is later added to the pot, the water will cover tongue plus another 2 inches. Bring to a boil. Add tongue, onions, celery, garlic, thyme, bay leaves, salt and pepper and simmer for 4 hours, uncovering pot for the last hour so that cooking liquid starts to reduce.

Since the tongue will tend to float to the top and not be covered all the way by the water, you may want to rig up something to keep it below the water level such as this contraption using a potato masher. (I call this my tounge depressor):

(Don't push the tongue down so far that it touches the bottom of the pot or it may burn.)

Remove tongue from water and set aside. Strain cooking liquid through colander, removing all large solids and reduce liquid until slightly thick. Refrigerate for use later when tongue is to be reheated.

Once tongue is cool enough to handle, carefully pull skin off tongue, being careful not to let any meat pull of with the skin. Wrap tongue in plastic wrap and refrigerate. Do not attempt to cut the tongue when it is warm since the meat must be cold to keep it from falling apart when sliced.

When tongue is cold, remove the plastic wrap and using a sharp knife, trim off any parts of outside of the tongue slices which feel hard or dry. The tongue can be refrigerated for at least a week.

To serve the tongue with Fruit Compote and Wild Rice Pilaf cut chilled tongue into ½" slices. Heat in microwave until the slices are hot and tender.