Wow Brown Cow!

Yet another long overdue posting on my end. I will not bore anyone with the details. I just have to remember the excitement I felt when I received my package of pressure cooker in the mail. It is my very first pressure cooker and I was delighted to get it. As I opened the box for a closer inspection of my toy, recipes to try were racing through my mind. Since I had my mom over I thought of making something I would not eat but has been in our family since I can remember. I am talking about Lengua Estofado. Simply put, it is ox tongue. I don’t even know if I spelled it correctly. It is by far the most requested dish we have on every party. This dish takes a lot of time to prepare. The first leg would be the approximately 3 hours of boiling to make it tender. The next would be the time it takes to peel off the outer lining of the tongue. The power of the pressure cooker will be shaving off most of the time it takes to tenderize the meat. Unfortunately, my mother still had to manually peel off that lining. She was one of my kitchen assistants for the day. Oh well…

Here is the age old recipe I used for this delightful nostalgic dish.

LENGUA ESTOFADO

1 ox tongue

2 calamondin

1/4c soy sauce

1/4c olive oil

5 garlic cloves, minced

2 med onions

1/3c Fresh Tomatoes, chopped (approx. 1 roma)

Salt to taste

1/4t black peppercorns

1/4c white wine

Enough water to cover tongue in the pot

* Salt and vinegar

*Rub tongue with Salt and Vinegar to clean

*Rinse off and boil for approx. 5 min.

*Peel off white layer from the tongue (the taste buds).

*Reserve broth in the pot

*Marinate the tongue in Calamondin and Soy Sauce for an hour. (turning halfway through)

*Reserve marinade.

- Brown tongue in Olive Oil

- Return the tongue in the pot with the reserved broth

- Caramelize onion and garlic using the pan where the tongue was browned

- Add in the tomatoes

- Toss in caramelized onion, garlic and tomatoes with the rest of the ingredients

Plus the reserved marinade into the pot of tongue

- Bring to a boil and simmer for 3 hours (40 min in a pressure cooker with high pressure)

- Strain broth and set aside

- Let the tongue rest for 10 min and slice on a bias then arrange on a platter to be topped off

With the mushroom gravy

MUSHROOM SAUCE

1/4c Butter

1/4c All Purpose Flour

½ c Mushrooms, sliced ( just add more if you love mushrooms)

Reserved Broth

Sauté mushrooms in butter until tender and set aside

Add in AP Flour to butter until golden brown

Add in reserved broth and reduce until it coats the back of a spoon

Put mushrooms back in to heat

Pour some over the platter of tongue and the rest in a gravy container

Another item I made was walnut pie. It is fairly simple to make and one of my mother’s favorite. She’s pretty much crazy for nuts. Well, technically I wasn’t the one who made the pie on that particular day. It was my sister. Kitchen assistant for that day I should say. Thankfully, too many cooks didn’t spoil the broth. A mere almost I would say.

Here is the recipe I used, but I am planning on replacing some of the ingredients for the next bake craze. I would just go straight to the filling part because you can use your favorite pie crust recipe or the ones you can get in your frozen section. I urge you to use good quality ones though. The crust binds the whole delectable pie experience together.

WALNUT PIE FILLING ( I think this is from Sunset Restaurant, Hill Country Tx ; theirs is pecan)

¾ c Sugar

3 Eggs, Large

½ c Light Corn Syrup

3 T Unsalted Butter, melted

2 t Pure Vanilla Extract

1 ¾ c Walnuts, chopped or whole

Preheat oven to 350 deg F

Whisk first 5 ingredients in a bowl to blend

Mix in walnuts

Pour into crust

Bake pie until set approx. 1 hour

Transfer to rack and cool

Too much brown doesn't look quite appealing, but I dare say that it was indeed a delight to the whole eating experience.