Blood + Offal – Writing With My Mouth Full

Lengua, Beef Tongue Tacos with Tomatillo Sauce

Don’t let this offal turn you off. This lengua, or beef tongue, taco recipe will be one of the easiest things you’ll make at home providing that you have the 3 hours to simmer the tongue which you can totally do way ahead of time. The July 4th holiday is coming up, so really, you have no excuse not to do this for you and your omnivorous friends.

The tomatillo sauce was the easiest to make since you just put everything in a food processor and pulse. Sure you can buy the ones from the grocery store, but what are you doing while waiting for that tongue to simmer? You might as well have everything homemade, right?

When assembling your tacos, feel free to add avocados if you’re in your California mood, or thinly-sliced French breakfast radishes for some extra tartness. I simply used my hinona kabu, or Japanese turnips, harvest from my terrace. The roots didn’t quite make it because of the humidity, but I got some nice salad greens out of them.

Ingredients:
1 beef tongue, completely thawed if frozen, thoroughly washed
1 large onion, halved
1 head of garlic, peeled and crushed
4 bay leaves
1 tbsp of peppercorns
salt
oil
corn tortillas
radish tops, thoroughly washed
hot sauce

For the tomatillo sauce:
6 tomatillos, husks removed, halved
1 small bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalape¤o, chopped
juice from 1 lime
salt
sugar

1. In a large pot, boil the tongue with enough water to cover and add the onion, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorn and salt. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook up to 3 hours, or until the tongue is soft to the touch.
2. Remove the cooked tongue from the water to a chopping block until it’s cool to the touch. Using a paring knife and your hands, peel off the white-colored skin covering and discard. You may also discard the the rough patch where the tongue was attached to the cow’s mouth if that’s too much to look at–but it’s perfectly edible.
3. Slice the tongue in 1/4-inch slices. Heat some oil in a skillet and quickly sear tongue slices. Remove to a sieve to drain the oil.
4. Make your tomatillo sauce. Broil the tomatillos in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove to a food processor and pulse them with the rest of the sauce ingredients. Season to taste.
5. Assemble your tacos. On a skillet over medium fire, warm the corn tortillas to soften. Let your guests top their tortilla with the tongue pieces, radish tops and tomatillo sauce. Don’t be afraid to use more hot sauce!

Homemade Pici Pasta with Tripe

I had to waste four cups of flour before I perfected this recipe. The first recipe I found online did not require eggs nor all-purpose flour, just semolina and water. I thought that was odd, but I gave it a try anyway. I should have trusted my instinct. The “dough” refused to stick together and just ended up becoming a shredded mess. I found another recipe that required eggs but did not list semolina, so I thought I’d combine the two instructions until the dough felt right in my hands, just like I learned in my gnocchi class last year.

And what exactly is “right”? I’m not sure if I can describe, but after I mixed the flour with the eggs, I freely sprinkled the kitchen counter with semolina and started kneading. Every time the dough got a little sticky, I dusted with more semolina to allow me to continue kneading it. I stopped until the dough felt pliable enough to cut and roll into snake-like noodles. That’s the word I was looking for! Pliable!

It took an hour to make the pici and they looked like they weren’t going to feed more than two people, but as soon as I cooked the pasta and distributed them to three deep serving dishes, I had enough for two more servings the next day. The cooked pasta was plump and I really needed just one tong-heaping for each person.

Caz Hildebrand’s The Geometry of Pasta is an awesome book about pasta with really cool illustrations.

Ingredients:
2 pounds of tripe, thawed, thoroughly washed, dried with paper towels
salt
vanilla
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red onion, chopped
1 can tomato sauce

For the pici pasta:
3 cups of all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1 to 1 1/4 cups of lukewarm water
olive oil
semolina flour
any hard cheese, shaved
some parsley, finely chopped

1. Prepare the tripe. Cut the tripe into smaller square sheets and cook in a large pot of boiling water with the salt and vanilla for about an hour, or until the tripe is tender. It’s okay that they are still a little chewy; just make sure it’s not rubbery. Drain and slice into smaller pieces.
2. Make the pasta while the tripe is cooking. Pour out the flour on a clean kitchen counter surface and create a hole in the middle. Crack each egg in the center of the well and mix with a fork. When the egg is mixed into the flour, begin to add a tiny bit of water at a time, each time trying to mix in as much flour as possible. When all of the flour is mixed in, begin to knead the flour. Youâ€™re going to probably do this for about 8-10 minutes. When complete, make dough into a mound and pour a teaspoon of olive oil on top. Cover with a dish towel and let it rest for 10 minutes.
2. Cut the dough into smaller pieces and roll each into thin dowels and into snake-like noodles. Place the pici on a sheet tray that has been dusted with semolina flour and cover the pasta with the dish towel. Set aside until ready to use.
3. Make the sauce. In a large pot, heat some oil. Sauté some garlic until light brown. Add the onions and sauté until translucent. Add the tripe and cook by sauteéing. Lower the heat and add the tomato sauce. Mix and simmer for 10 minutes, just enough to incorporate the tomatoes.
4. Cook the pasta. Salt a large pot of water and put over high heat until boiling. Add the pici and cook for 10 minutes or until al dente. Use tongs to remove them from the water onto deep serving dishes. Top with sauce, cheese and parsley.

Crispy Pigs’ Ears Salad

I’ve made pigs’ ears salad at home before, but this version is crispier, saltier and more perfect with beer. This is for my friend, Hafeez, who liked the Irving Mill version a lot when we ate there. At home, I fried the ears in really hot oil while standing on a short step-ladder. I wanted to be as far away from the skillet as much as possible, but I also wanted to see how the ears were cooking. It must have been a sight because my father stayed to watch me avoid getting splattered by very hot oil.

After you’ve fried the first batch of pigs’ ears, you want them to stay crispy while you finish the rest. Don’t cover the skillet when frying because that will trap moisture in. I used a slotted spoon to remove the fried ears and I transferred them to a stainless steel colander to drain the excess oil. You don’t want to use paper towels like usual because the ears will end up sitting on moist paper while you finish cooking.

You can use almost any bitter greens for this salad to stand up to the salty fried pigs’ ears. I used spinach, but spicy arugula, endive or radicchio are great substitutes.

Ingredients:
4 pigs’ ears, thoroughly washed
1 bunch of spinach
1 red onion, thinly sliced
half a bunch of parsley, finely chopped
oil, salt, pepper

1. In a large stock pot, cook pigs’ ears in enough boiling water to submerge them for an hour and a half. When cooked, remove and slice in strips.
2. Heat enough frying oil in a large skillet to deep-fry sliced ears. In small batches, add pigs’ ears and fry for 6 minutes. Do not cover skillet. When fried, use a slotted spoon to remove ears from hot oil and into a colander to drain excess oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper while fried ears are hot. Set aside to cool.
3. Assemble salad when ears are almost cool enough to eat. Toss ears with remaining ingredients in a large salad bowl. Season with pepper.

Pig’s Feet With Caramelized Onions

With all the fish I’ve been eating the past week, it was time to go back to pork. What better way to celebrate my return than to, ahem, trot back to the kitchen with pig’s feet. This is another recipe from StÃ©phane Reynaud’s Pork & Sons. If you can get a glimpse of the book, turn to page 190–you’ll want to make the recipe at home, too.

In Chinatown’s Deluxe Food Market, pig’s trotters are less than $3 for a pair. If you can’t find them in the frozen section, get one of the Chinese men’s attention and say “feet” while pointing at your shoes; one of them will surely direct you to the right shelf. The original recipe uses walnut oil to bring out the richness of the feet. I didn’t want to spend $12 on a bottle from Dean & Deluca, so I stuck with my good olive oil at home. I think I achieved what the author was thinking of here.

The funny thing about pig’s feet is that people forget that it’s not offal. Sure, a foot is an odd part of the pig to be eating, but you don’t eat it like you do chicken’s feet at dimsum. (I’ve never heard of pig’s foot in a stick either.) It takes a couple of hours to make the feet soft and when you take them out of the boiling water, the meat and skin fall off the bones easily. They are rich in fat content and very gelatinous, so you get the same fatty meat that you do from a very Filipino pork adobo. It’s all that fat you can be squeamish about, not which part it came from.

Ingredients:
2 pig’s feet, thoroughly rinsed
4 strips bacon, chopped
2 carrots, peeled, chopped
1 white onion, halved
2 red onions, thinly sliced
1 bunch scallion, chopped
half a bunch of parsley
2 bay leaves
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
chives, chopped
salt, pepper, oil

1. In a large Dutch oven, put the feet, bacon, white onion, carrots, scallions, parsley and bay leaves with enough water to cover. Cover and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 2 hours.
2. While waiting for the feet to soften, heat some oil in a skillet and sautÃ© 1 red onion and cook until soft. Set aside.
3. After 2 hours, remove the feet and bacon from the pot using a slotted spoon. Using a fork and a knife, separate the meat and the skin from the bones. This should be fairly easy. Discard the bones.
4. Chop the bacon. Combine the sautÃ©d onion with the feet meat and skin plus the bacon. Season with some salt and pepper. Using a Saran wrap, spoon the mixture and arrange like a sausage. Cover and roll like a tight, big blunt. (Oh, come on. You know.) Put in the freezer for 30 minutes.
5. While waiting for the pig’s feet sausage to form, caramelize the last red onion by sautÃ©ing some hot oil in the same skillet and mixing with brown sugar. Set aside for topping.
6. Make your dressing. Whisk together some olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
7. After 30 minutes, preheat your broiler. Remove the feet from the freezer, unwrap and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices and place on an ovenproof serving plate. Heat briefly in the broiler, just enough to warm the meat up, less than 5 minutes. To serve, top with caramelized onion and chives, and then drizzle with oil-balsamic dressing.

Pig’s Ears Salad

The new year has just begun and I already have a favorite cookbook: StÃ©phane Reynaud’s Pork & Sons from Phaidon. I immediately wanted it when I saw JosÃ© Reis de Matos’ pig illustrations and Carlotta’s hand-written curly titles bounded in baby pink and white gingham checks, but I held off from buying yet another cookbook. In Austin’s Bookpeople, it was sold at a discounted price; I finally walked away with it.

The front page has “for the love of sausages” written on it and there are drawings of pigs in hammocks, on bicycles, wading in mud and even pole dancing on the cover of a chapter called “A Piggy Party”. This book was made for me! If not to make your own sausages or cook this pig’s ears salad from page 186, just buy it to squeal–pun intended–at the illustrations.

As soon as I saw this recipe, I knew how it was going to taste and feel in my mouth. The pig’s ears will be gelatinous and the cartilage crunchy; the ginger and the shallots adding a kick while the spinach tames everything down. I loved the pig’s ears appetizer at El Quinto Pino and I could imagine this being served there as well. I would even try this with some flat parsley leaves or spicy arugula if I don’t have spinach handy. It’s good with a glass of white wine, but even better with cold beer.

Ingredients:
3 pig’s ears, thoroughly washed
half a bunch of baby spinach
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1 small knob of ginger, peeled, julienned
a handful of fresh chives, chopped
a few jiggers of red wine vinegar
salt, oil

1. Cook the pig’s ears in boiling water for 1 hour. Drain and let cool.
2. In the meantime, combine the shallots, ginger, chives and some canola oil in a bowl.
3. When the pig’s ears are cool enough to handle, slice thinly.
4. Heat some frying oil in a skillet and cook the ears until golden brown, while stirring occasionally using a wooden spoon to scrape off the gelatinous stuff that sticks to the bottom of the pan. Splash with the red wine vinegar and cook for 2 more minutes.
5. Remove to a plate lined with paper towel to drain the oil a little bit, and then transfer to the bowl with the spinach and shallot mixture. Toss and season with salt.