Tacos de Lengua

So I went to Jr's Tacos with my Dad yesterday. While I was there in the barrio, I had an uncommon and foodborne flash of lucidity brought on by the eating of my tacos.

I do enjoy the barrio... I enjoy the culture... I enjoy the people...

but...

Why am I not making this on my own?

So after we were done eating, off we went to the Mexican Market. Heads of cabbage were 25¢, so I got one to make some coleslaw. Figured I'd need it to top my taco's too. I love the Mexican Market. The fresh tortilla's, the flan, the bags of mesquite, my Dad asking the ladies about the cheese... (He wanted to know if it was "goat" cheese, and they couldn't understand his english... and he's hard of hearing enough that he couldn't hear them when they responded back... so yeah, everybody smiles and acts polite, even tho nobody knows what's going on. But regardless, he's happy, they're happy, so I'm happy.)

Anyway, I bought myself a beef tongue. And since I didn't really know what I was doing, I kept it small. About 2.5 lbs of tongue.

Once home I googled all the Lengua recipes I could so I had something to work with. Here's what I came up with. :)

I washed the tongue and placed it in a large enough pot that water could cover. I added half a sliced onion, five pressed cloves of garlic, salt to taste, and a bay leaf.

I figured we might as well help flavor the meat a little. Any boiled meat that I've ever had was usually pretty tasteless.

The Tongue.

At this point I simmered the meat one hour for every pound. So, two and a half hours.

So what are you supposed to do for two and a half hours? This is just like smoking meat when you've got hours to spend while something slow cooks. I ended up going to the grocery and bought the other ingredients I figured I'd need that I couldn't dig out of the garden. Then I hit up Starbucks, and since I still had a lot of time... I made a couple loaves of zucchini bread.

Zucchini Makin's

Fresh Bread
(smells a little weird with the bread smells mixing with the tongue smells...)

After the tongue was done, I set it aside until I could handle it. Here's a few shots to gross people out.

Almost looks like dough rolled in Sesame Seeds.

Have you ever had the pleasure of being licked by a cow? I have. That's a story for a different time, I can't explain now... but anyway, their tongues feel like cat tongues. They're raspy. The shot above shows why.

Just try to get THAT image out of your mind.

K. So the tongue is cooled. I picked it up and peeled the skin leather off of it and trimmed off the gristle.

In the beginning, Chris peeled a tongue.

It may seem weird, but really... underneath... we're all just meat.

Once the tongue was peeled and trimmed I cut it up into chunks for eating. I've had several pieces at this point... it's good!

Next we have to turn our meat into Tacos! I'm not sure if I'd do this vege stuff again, but I'll tell you what I did, just so you know.

First, I went ahead and roasted a couple of Poblano Peppers.

Roasting

Peeled and Chopped.

While the peppers were roasting I went and dug some tomatoes and tomatillas out of the garden.

I chopped them up too.

Feeling whimsical I went ahead and started sautéing the other half of the onion I'd used earlier...
to that I added some garlic, several green onions, and a couple serranos for heat. Then I threw in the tomato and tomatillo...

Then I dropped in the meat.

While that sizzled away, I got my toppings ready. Fresh Cilantro, Fresh Lime, Fresh Onion, and the Fresh, Sliced, Cabbage.

This is starting to look up!

Looking pretty good. Spooned the mixture over white corn tortillas, topped it with fresh stuff, squeezed a lime over...
Oh WAIT!!!!

Can't have a taco without salsa!