tongue tacos.. Nix-style..
As some of my readers may have surmised I have a slight addiction to tongue tacos..
unfortunately, the only place I have found them is in Madison.. which is quite a distance away
so, being an intrepid hobbit-like being..
I figured..
'fuck it.. I'll just cook 'em myself'
so I did some research..
found some recipes (since this wasn't something I was just going to wing-it on)
and embarked upon my quest to have tongue tacos on a regular basis
I started off.. with..
the tongue itself!
not a bad price as there is almost no 'waste' to it..
no bone..
hardly any fat..
and the skin didn't amount to much
the tongue..
opened..
it was slimey..
sort of like.. well.. blood and slime-y saliva..
and it felt like a giant lamprey/alien organ/ well.. a tongue..
the photo is rather cloudy.. cause I forgot my camera was in my car and it was ball-numbing cold outside..
so it took a bit of time for it to basically defrost..
the cutting board was a christmas gift I got the folks.. previously all they had were small ones that were ungrooved..
and they usually just used a plate to cut..
well.. I should say they would put what they wanted me to cut onto a plate to cut, but that irritates the shit out of me
so I got them this..
so I could use it
another view of the opened tongue..
more from the base/bottom of it
a close-up of the tongue..
one person who also made this dish noted the following
"I was once licked by a cow, it was sort like getting licked by a cat.. only times cow"
a highly accurate description while looking at it and poking it..
these thingies on the side both intrigued me and made me a bit nervous..
nodules usually mean a bad thing..
but they are normal..
apparently..
didn't keep me from poking them though in disgusted fascination..
plopped it into a big pot and set it to simmer along with some celery, a white onion, some garlic, and other spices..
smelled awesome already!
at this point it's basically cooked.. only three hours
it was a bit tricky to get out cause the meat itself is incredibly tender..
so it took a bit of hinkering..
one bonus..
super-awesome beef broth
not too rich..
not too weak..
super super tasty..
for broth anyway..
here it is.. plopped out on the board..
if you notice.. there isn't a whole lot lost from pre-cooked to post-cooked..
a little bit of fat at the bottom and that's about it
time to start pulling the skin off..
some said to slice it first.. then pull the skin off.. sort of like unwrapping bologna..
others just said to skin it while it was whole..
I went with option 2..
very easy to skin..
in a few spots I had to use a parring knife to loosen it up.. but that was just towards the bottom
tongue..
post skinning..
time to slice!
imagine carving the tenderest roast..
and that is exactly how soft 95% of it was..
I wanted to give you some idea of how thick the skin was on the tongue..
(I blurred out a bunch of crap on the background counter)
I don't know.. I guess I expected it to be thinner or something..
board..
post slicing..
I had to drain away the juice three times the tongue was so succulent..
the bits of meat off to the side were still salvageable.. though more than likely other people would just toss it
a little bit of carving..
and the small amount of fat that there was.. was soon discarded (along with other non-edible bits)
from the four pound tongue..
I was able to get 1.5 very large tupperware bowls of meat..
I then added a bit of the broth to cover the meat so that it didn't dry out
post cooking..
the final product!
usually.. the meat is on the bottom..
but I wanted the meat to actually be visible for this shot
I made a bit of a seasoning for the meat to fry in (opposed to simply using some pre-made and disgusting crap from a packet)
that was super-yummy..
I lightly fried the shells using cooking spray (non-fat)
and then lightly sauteed the meat with the seasoning..
built the rest of the taco with a bit of white onion (I normally hate.. HATE.. raw onion.. this is one of the only times I truly relish it.. it helps bring the dish together), a very healthy dash of fresh cilantro (something I can simply graze on..), and then some lime juice
tell me..
does it look disgusting?
if I said it was merely beef.. would it be alright then? (that's not directed at anyone in particular.. or in any sort of angry tone)
over-all..
mine were and are.. quite scrumptious..
I figure if I find a different shell.. that they would actually be good for the WW thingie.. since if they had just a bit more fiber, their number thingie would drop
something I will have to look out for
but..
the recipe I finally went with has almost no salt.. very little fat.. and all sorts of vitamin-y goodness from the ingredients..
next up..
Steak and Kidney Pie maybe?
any suggestions?
just no eyeballs..
Nix