Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (105 page)

⅓ cup dry Madeira (Sercial)

½ cup dry white wine or dry white French vermouth

Optional, to improve flavor and texture of sauce:

A cup or so of chopped or sawed veal knuckle bones and/or beef marrow bones

A piece of blanched pork rind 6 inches square

1 whole washed tomato, unpeeled, roughly chopped

1 large clove of garlic, unpeeled, halved

1 imported bay leaf

½ tsp thyme

1 or more cups rich beef stock or beef bouillon

A sheet of pork rind or beef suet ¼ inch thick and large enough to cover tongue; or washed cheesecloth

Pour the Madeira and the wine or vermouth into the casserole; boil down rapidly until liquid has almost evaporated. Strew optional bones and the pork rind around the tongue, along with the tomato, garlic, and herbs. Pour in enough stock or bouillon to come ⅔ the way up the tongue. Cover tongue with fat or cheesecloth, bring liquid in casserole to the simmer, cover casserole, and set in lower-middle level of preheated oven. In 20 minutes, check to see that liquid in casserole is simmering slowly and steadily; lift fat or cloth and baste tongue rapidly with liquid in casserole. Turn thermostat down to 325 degrees. Baste tongue several times again during cooking, and when it has braised 1 hour, turn on its other side, covering again with fat or cheesecloth. Tongue should be done in 2 to 2½ hours, when a knife will pierce the meat easily; do not overcook. (While tongue is braising, prepare vegetable garnish; although the vegetables may braise with the tongue, we find it easier to cook them separately.)

3)
The vegetable garnish

24 to 32 small fresh white onions 1 to 1¼ inches in diameter

A saucepan of boiling water

A wide (9- to 10-inch) saucepan, chicken fryer, or electric skillet, and a cover for the pan

1 to 1½ cups water

Salt

3 Tb butter

10 to 12 fine, fresh medium-sized carrots, all of a size

10 to 12 firm fresh white turnips all of a size, 2 to 2½ inches in diameter

Drop onions into boiling water, bring rapidly back to the boil for exactly 1 minute; drain. Shave off tops and bottoms, and peel the onions; pierce a cross ⅓ inch deep in the root ends for even cooking. Place in pan with the water, salt, and butter; bring to the simmer, cover, and simmer slowly while preparing the carrots. Rapidly peel the carrots, quarter them lengthwise, cut into 1½-inch lengths, trim off sharp edges, and add to the simmering onions. Then rapidly peel the turnips, quarter them, trim off sharp edges, and add to the pan after onions have cooked 20 minutes. Continue to simmer slowly until vegetables are tender (about 20 minutes longer), adding a little more water if all has evaporated. Correct seasoning, and set aside.

1 quart (about ¾ lb.) fresh button mushrooms (or larger fresh mushrooms, quartered)

A large (11-inch) frying pan

2 Tb butter and ½ Tb cooking oil

2 Tb minced shallots or scallions

Salt and pepper

Trim the mushrooms, wash rapidly, and dry in a towel. Set frying pan over moderately high heat with the butter and oil. When butter foam is beginning to subside, add the mushrooms; sauté 3 to 4 minutes, tossing frequently, shaking and swirling the pan by its handle until mushrooms are just beginning to brown lightly. Toss for a moment with the shallots or scallions, season to taste, scrape into a side dish, and reserve.

4)
Sauce and serving

A hot, lightly buttered platter

A sieve set over a saucepan

¼ cup dry Madeira (Sercial)

1 Tb arrowroot (buy at a fancy food shop or in a pharmacy), or cornstarch, in a small bowl

A wire whip and rubber spatula

Salt and pepper

3 to 4 Tb soft butter

Parsley sprigs

When tongue is tender, remove to platter, cover, and keep warm in turned-off oven (or warming oven at 120 degrees) while finishing the sauce. Pour contents of casserole through sieve, pressing juices out of braising ingredients. Skim surface fat off liquid in saucepan, and bring liquid to the simmer, skimming. You should have about 2 cups.

Blend the Madeira into the arrowroot or cornstarch; remove cooking liquid from heat and blend the wine mixture into it. When smooth, return saucepan to heat and fold in the cooked onions, carrots, turnips, and mushrooms along with any of their cooking juices. Simmer, swirling pan by its handle and gently turning vegetables in sauce for 4 to 5 minutes. Sauce should be thick enough to coat the tongue nicely; carefully correct seasoning. Just before serving, fold in the enrichment butter, half a tablespoon at a time, gently basting vegetables with sauce until butter is absorbed.

Arrange the tongue humped side up on the platter, glaze it with spoonfuls of the sauce, and arrange the vegetables around it, basting both tongue and vegetables with remaining sauce. Decorate with parsley sprigs, and serve immediately.

(*)
AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE
: If you are not ready to serve when tongue is tender, complete the sauce but omit the final butter enrichment. Return tongue, sauce, and vegetable garnish to casserole; cover tongue again with its fat or cheesecloth, put on casserole cover slightly askew, and set in a 120-degree oven, or over simmering water. Tongue will stay warm safely for a good hour. If sauce has thickened too much when you are ready to serve, thin it out with a little stock or bouillon.

Other sauces, flavorings, garnitures

You may braise tongue with any of the flavorings and garnishings you would use for beef; you might even slice it after its preliminary 2-hour boiling and peeling, re-form it with a mushroom stuffing between each slice, and then braise it, as for the sliced and stuffed tenderloin of
beef
en feuilletons
. The garniture
à la bourgeoise
, of onions, mushrooms, and olives, would be attractive, as would some of the variations following
beef stew
. Particularly recommended among these are the
pistou
and the Provençal flavorings, the
pipérade
with its peppers and tomatoes, and the final suggestion
here
, for ginger, capers, and herbs. For any of these suggestions, the general cooking procedure for the tongue follows the same pattern and timing as the Master Recipe; you are simply substituting other flavorings.

TONGUE BRAISED IN SLICES

Tongue is much easier to prepare and serve when you braise it in slices after its preliminary 2-hour boil and its peeling. Sliced tongue cooks in 30 to 40 minutes, the flavor of the sauce penetrates the meat beautifully, and sliced tongue lends itself to prearrangements, precooking, and numerous ahead-of-time maneuvers that are not possible with whole tongue. Using the general method of the following recipe, you can add sliced tongue to cook with the brown mustard sauce, pearl onions, and raisins in the
boiled tongue recipe
, or use one of the ideas either in the preceding paragraph or in those suggested for
boiled tongue
.