Tongue-tied!

By Emmanuelle

THERE are these three recipes which call for ox or beef or pork tongues.

Tongue with pureed peas instructs the cook to boil it until its white coat can be scraped off easily. Throw out boiled water with the plea to all souls and elements: bari-bari, laki, bai! Add a smile to all and none: puera bambano. Boil again in fresh water with garlic, onion, bay leaf and peppercorns. When sufficiently soft, cut it diagonally. Set it aside. Make a soft paste from strained anchovies and softened butter with parsley. Insert paste between the tongue slices. Lay the tongue slices on pyrex dish. Pour more melted butter unto it. Bake in moderate heat for a half hour. Serve with pea sauce. Decorate with sprigs of parsley, onion rings fried in butter, slices of hard-boiled eggs.

The above is definitely a treat for the human tongue, but definitely a no-no for the weak at heart and the cholesterol-clogged. The next recipe sounds better.

Lengua estofada tells the cook to rub it in. Not with words, of course, but with salt and vinegar. Rinse. Boil for five minutes, after which the ritual scraping off of the white coat. Fry the whole thing brown in olive oil. Add the rest of the vegetable garden: crushed garlic, quartered onions, peppercorns, laurel leaf, clove, quartered carrots and tomatoes, stalks of leeks, sprigs of parsley. Pour in water and wine. Simmer until tongue is tender. Take out tongue and slice it into medium-thin serving pieces. Put back pieces. Add potatoes and mushrooms. Simmer until potatoes are cooked. Arrange on a platter garnished with parsley.

The third recipe is strictly for the chef only. It hides the calorific crime beneath crusty pastry. Pastel de lengua gives again the order to boil the tongue, scrape off the white coat, then continue boiling until soft. Take it out to cut into one-inch squares. Boil the pieces again in broth laced with tomato sauce. Add the leftovers of the vegetable garden. Onions, ground pepper, cubes of carrots and potatoes, green olives. Add, too, a canned foreigner from Vienna, sausage. Thicken sauce with sprinkles of flour. Simmer for five minutes, then pour into Pyrex dish. Cover with pie crust. Brush top of crust with beaten egg and milk. Bake until golden brown.

If you do not know how to make a pie crust, the how come why not and this is how you do it dumbo will run through an entirely new article. Someday. In the unseen future. If I were reminded frequently enough.

Incidentally, those constant directions to scrape off the white coat must remind us all and sundry to scrape off the coatings on our own tongues next time we brush our teeth. Use the raised ridges at the back of the newest design of toothbrush, no commercial ad allowed here. Or simply apply the brush vigorously on and underneath the tongue, up the palate, against the cheeks. Hum Jingle Bells while brushing through the snow. Why not, it’s Christmas. After which truly exhausting exercise, only then can you really be sure that no foul breath shall ever hound your reputation from the day’s first brush.

At this point, you may now deliciously digest away the human tongue in your stomach as you tuck away the ox, beef or pork tongue among its comrades your teeth, your palate, your cheeks, your teeth and all the friendly bacteria left within. Or should it be vice versa? Pardon me, your royal top downs, while I chuck it all in.

Actually, the first intention was to write about how we tie our tongue to a lifetime sentence of seemingly agreeable compromise with all the citizens and denizens of wee planet earth. In exchange for an indefinite plea bargain of peace and quiet air. This was after having been confronted with a short video clip of a favorite woman artist, not singing her soul out this time, but chanting out her anger in a poem she herself wrote. About being a POW. A prisoner of words.

And this is next week’s, we think. As we contemplate Hello, Wen.

Meantime, I have this dextrose bottle dripping to when.

(Readers may reach columnist at jingmil@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/feelings/
For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments