{"id":3974,"date":"2015-04-18T01:12:09","date_gmt":"2015-04-18T01:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=3974"},"modified":"2015-04-18T01:12:09","modified_gmt":"2015-04-18T01:12:09","slug":"veal-tongue-with-mustard-horseradish-roast-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=3974","title":{"rendered":"veal tongue, mustard-horseradish sauce; roast roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"roasting_roots\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The roots came second in the preparation of this meal, not the usual order for me, but\u00a0the\u00a0slow-boiled beef veal tongue\u00a0that they were to accompany had already been long absorbing\u00a0the flavors of\u00a0its broth when it\u00a0was time to place the vegetables in a hot oven. \u00a0The picture above shows them just before that moment, and the picture which follows, of the finished dinner on the plate, was taken almost an hour later.<\/p>\n

\"lingua_di_vitello_roots\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I love tongue (I’m talking about cooking here). \u00a0Most people may think of\u00a0it\u00a0as fairly exotic, at the very least. \u00a0The fact that it is in the category of ‘offal’, even if the etymology of that word has no relationship to a common like-sounding adjective,\u00a0doesn’t help its popularity. \u00a0If anyone has\u00a0experienced it at all, it was likely to have been as\u00a0part of a platter of cold meats, where it might have gone unremarked.<\/p>\n

I learned to appreciate it many years ago, as a cold dish and also as a warm entr\u00e9e. \u00a0I was in my 20’s, and already fasciated by the great European cooking traditions, not least those of France and her adopted daughter Julia Child. \u00a0I have no interest in consuming really<\/em>\u00a0exotic animals, which, to someone still as Eurocentric as I, means\u00a0anything which would not be\u00a0found in\u00a0traditional European\u00a0kitchens, but I’m game for, well, . . . European game of course,\u00a0but also\u00a0offal.<\/p>\n

Until this year, my experience with tongue was limited to beef tongue, and that was in my Rhode Island kitchen in the late 60s, 70s and early 80s (my guest-friends back in that era must have thought I was half insane, even before<\/em>\u00a0the first of my suckling pig meals). \u00a0It\u00a0was my virtually complete dependence on the Union Square Greenmarket for food sources that recently introduced me to both lamb and veal tongue for the first time. \u00a0 In almost 30 years I have never seen\u00a0tongue displayed in the stores in my New York neighborhood, even before it became upscale\u00a0; it’s even difficult finding liver, which was always a staple when I was growing up (although it’s possible that\u00a0offal is finally about to assume\u00a0its proper place at the upscale meat counter).<\/p>\n

I soon learned that\u00a0if you start looking for a recipe for this cut of meat, or even just some inspiration, you could\u00a0go on forever. \u00a0I jumped on this particular one from Epicurious<\/a>,\u00a0for Beef tongue, from May, 2000, because\u00a0I liked the list of ingredients (and already had them on hand, except for the dill), and, while this may surprise\u00a0some,\u00a0it looked pretty straightforward\u00a0(not\u00a0too many steps). Since I had a veal tongue a quarter of the weight of the piece specified, I reduced the amounts of the other ingredients accordingly.<\/p>\n

Note: After I had removed the tongue, I strained the cooking broth and placed it in a container in the freezer. \u00a0I’ll probably use as the basis of\u00a0a cabbage soup\u00a0lunch.<\/p>\n