Tongue with Two Sauces in Thermomix

Ox tongue is the sort of offal that many people will eat, if they are not told exactly what it is, or, if they don't see the preparation.

The texture of cooked ox tongue can be so soft and velvety that few really could resist it, if they are fed it "blind".

I love it and so decided to try cooking it in the Thermomix. It worked well for me, so please consider trying it, if you are a tongue-lover.


Tongue with Two Sauces

Ingredients:

1 ox tongue
1 onion, cut in quarters
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 stick of celery, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove
1 bay leaf
Sprig of thyme
1/2 cup white wine
Few black peppercorns
2 whole cloves.

Method:

Wash the tongue and trim any excess from underneath so that you can place it in the TM basket. Place onion, carrot, celery and garlic in TM bowl and chop for 10 seconds on speed 5. Add remaining ingredients and place the TM basket with tongue into the TM bowl.

Add water or stock to cover the tongue. Place lid on and cook for 60 minutes at 80°C on speed soft. After that time, carefully remove the tongue and turn it over, add more stock or water to ensure the tongue is covered and cook for another 60 minutes at 80°C on speed soft. The tongue should be cooked and a skewer should slip into the tongue without resistance. Remove the tongue to a bowl and cover with the poaching liquid and allow it to cool enough to be able to be handled.



Once cool, the tongue needs to be peeled and trimmed. The bulk of the “skin” can be stripped off and any remaining pieces removed with a vegetable peeler. The gristly bits from underneath also need to be removed.




While peeling the tongue, strain the poaching liquor back into the TM bowl and boil for 10 minutes at 100°C on speed 2. Place the cleaned tongue into a clean bowl and cover with the poaching liquor until needed.


Salsa Verde

Ingredients:

1 cup fresh parsley
2 cloves garlic
2 anchovy fillets
2 gherkins
1 tablespoon capers
1/2 cup olive oil
20 ml lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Place parsley in TM bowl and chop for 15 seconds on speed 7. Add remaining ingredients and blend for 45 seconds on speed 6. The sauce should be very thick, you may add some more oil, if too thick and then extra lemon juice to taste.

Cumberland Sauce

Ingredients:

Zest and juice of 1 orange
2 tablespoons redcurrant jelly
200 ml red wine
100 ml port
20ml lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard
Salt and pepper to taste.

Method:

Place zest into TM bowl and grate for 30 seconds on speed 9, scraping down the sides every 10 seconds. Add the jelly and wines and cook for 8 minutes at 100°C on speed 1.

Add the orange and lemon juice and cook for a further 5 minutes at 100°C on speed 1.
Blend for 30 seconds on speed 9 before straining into a bowl. Stir through the mustard and season with salt and pepper. Serve warm.

Thermomix Chicken Livers with Dukkah

This recipe has evolved from a dish that I was served at a restaurant in Castlemaine (Victoria), called The Globe, many years ago. The meal was memorable for the antics of the owner/waiters and the chicken livers that I had as an appetiser while thinking about what to have for the main part of the meal.

The chicken livers had been cooked perfectly and the sauce/seasoning accompanying them made them even more delicious. I asked the waiter to let the chef know that they were superb. As the waiter returned to the kitchen with the plate I could hear him call out to the chef - "Alright on the livers". Glad I'm not a chef relying on feedback.

You don't need a Thermomix to make the dukkah, nor do you need one to cook the livers, but since I have one I used it to do both.

The combination of chicken livers and dukkah is great and I have made a dip along the lines of chicken liver pate with finely milled dukkah.

There is a recipe for a terrine of chicken livers pressed with dukkah in Greg & Lucy Malouf's book "Arabesque"

It would be good to try a lightly cooked egg with the livers and dukkah too.

Chicken Livers with Dukkah

Dukkah - adapted from "Everyday Cooking for Every Family"

Ingredients:

100g white sesame seeds
70g hazelnuts
40g coriander seeds
25g cumin seeds
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp za'atar or dried thyme

Method:

Place the sesame seeds, hazelnuts, coriander and cumin seeds into the TM bowl and dry roast for 10 minutes at 100°C on speed 1.

Remove lid and allow to cool. Once the mixture has cooled, replace lid and set dial to closed lid position and pulse 2 or 3 times with Turbo button to produce a coarse powder - as seen in picture.

Keep in airtight container and refrigerate what you don't use.

Chicken livers

Ingredients:

250ml oil, olive or vegetable
500g chicken livers, trimmed of veins and cut into roughly 5cm pieces
100ml port, sweet sherry, marsala or Madeira

Method:

Place oil into TM bowl and heat for 5 minutes at Varoma temperature on speed 1.

Position butterfly on blades and carefully add chicken livers to the TM bowl. Cook for 4 minutes at Varoma temperature on reverse + speed soft. Check after 2 minutes - you may need to move some of the livers around to ensure even cooking.

Once the livers have changed colour on the outside they should be OK. It is best not to overcook them, they should be pink inside. Drain the livers using the basket and place onto absorbent paper on a plate that fits in the Varoma. Place plate in Varoma and set aside.

Quickly rinse TM bowl and put Madeira (or other) into TM bowl, position lid and Varoma and reduce the port for 5 minutes at Varoma temperature on speed 3.

Place livers on warmed plate, cover with the reduced sauce and then sprinkle with dukkah.

Thermomix Varoma Liver and Apple

Thermomix Stuffed Truffled Trotters

Thermomix Tripe Curry

I don’t expect many people will read this post once they see what it’s about, but it’s not a lot of old tripe.

In the introduction to a previous tripe dish that I adapted from “Grossi Florentino – Secrets and Recipes”, (now available in paperback), Guy Grossi says that “Tripe is one of those love-hate things”. I can only agree, having eaten this dish on many occasions in the Florentino Cellar Bar and recalling with joy to friends, who recoil at the mention of the word “tripe”.

The first time I purchased tripe was from Jonathon Gianfreda’s father’s shop in Box Hill, while still at university. The recipe I made was similar to Guy’s recipe and I fell in love with tripe. Many people, however, were first subjected to a dish of chewy meat and onions with a very bland white sauce and never revisited tripe.

In the introduction to his recipe, Guy also talks of a restaurant in Rome called Checchino dal 1887, in the Testaccio district. The restaurant faces the piazza opposite what was the abattoir (Mattatoio) and is now part of the MACRO, Rome’s Museum of Contemporary Art. The restaurant is definitely worth a visit if you like offal.

Using bleached, cooked tripe in recipes means that you do not have to be concerned about the aroma of tripe filling the house. Well, not as much as if you cook it from the “green” state - now stomachs are turning.

I vividly recall the What Tripe dinner at the Meat Market in March 1999 where 5 tripe dishes were presented, including one from Jimmy Shui, a Cantonese-style tripe. Being the fortnight of the Olympic Games in China I was hoping to do a Chinese style tripe dish, similar to Jimmy Shui’s, but for now we will make do with a tripe curry.

This is a dish based on a Charmaine Solomon recipe for Tripe Curry.

Thermomix Tripe Curry

Ingredients:

700g tripe, preferably honeycomb tripe
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 clove garlic1 cm fresh ginger
1 stem lemon grass (white part only, 2 cm pieces)
1 medium onion, quartered
1-2 teaspoons chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground kencur (optional)
2 sprigs fresh curry leaves or 20 dried curry leaves (optional)
1 strip pandan leaf (optional)
3 cardamom pods
3 whole cloves
1 small stick cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water or stock
400ml coconut milk
lime juice to taste

Method:

Wash tripe and cut into 5cm squares.

Place coriander and cumin seeds in TM bowl and dry roast for 3 minutes at 100°C on speed 1 until they are fragrant and darker in colour. Grind seeds for 30 seconds on speed 9. Remove and set aside.

Place garlic, ginger and lemongrass into TM bowl and chop for 30 seconds on speed 7. Scrape down every 5 -10 seconds to ensure it all gets chopped. Add onion and chop for another 15 seconds on speed 6.

Add remaining ingredients except half the coconut milk to the TM bowl. Cook for 30 minutes at 100°C on reverse + speed soft leaving the Measuring Cup out of the lid.

The tripe should become tender and the gravy thick.

Stir in reserved coconut milk and cook for 5 minutes at 100°C on reverse + speed soft.

Serve with rice.

Grossi Florentino Tripe

This recipe has been a long-time favourite of mine.

I first had it at Cafe Grossi in South Yarra about 1996. The first time that I saw the recipe was in November 1998 at a cooking class given by Guy Grossi at Vital Ingredient in South Melbourne, on the night that the Grossi family signed to buy the Florentino restaurant from Lorraine Podgornik.

It is a regular in the restaurant and Cellar Bar. The Thermomix makes it so easy to cook at a simmer.

Tripe with tomato, white wine, pine nuts & muscatels

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 generous handful of continental parsley
1 large onion
1 clove garlic
1 red chilli, seeded
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large carrot, cut into small batons
2 sticks of celery, cut into small batons
4 cloves
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1 tsp pesto
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1 kg cooked honeycomb tripe, cut into thin strips
250 ml white wine
250 - 500 ml water or chicken stock
100g dried muscatels
100g pine nuts
Grated parmesan for service

Method:

Place parsley in bowl and chop for 10 seconds on speed 7. Scrape down during the chopping to produce a finer result. Set aside.

Place the onion, garlic and chilli into TM bowl and chop for 3 – 5 seconds on speed 7. Scrape down the sides of TM bowl and add the olive oil. Cook for 5 minutes at 100°C on speed 1. Add carrot and celery and cook for 5 minutes at 100°C on reverse speed 1. Add spices, pesto and most of the parsley (hold some for garnish), and season to taste with salt & pepper. Add tomato paste and cook for 10 minutes at 100°C on reverse speed 1 with MC out of lid.

Add white wine and cook for 5 minutes at Varoma temperature on reverse speed 2 with MC out of lid. Add tripe and then enough water or stock to just cover the tripe. Set Thermomix for 45 minutes at 80°C on reverse speed soft with MC in place. Add muscatels and pine nuts and cook for 10 minutes at 80°C on reverse speed soft.

Serve scattered with reserved parsley and some freshly grated Parmesan.