We had a mexican themed birthday party for a friend of ours......
.....and I wanted to try my hand at cooking something authentic. I've always seen tacos de lengua on the menu at this little mexican joint we frequent. As much I've always wanted to order it (psht, yeah right), I've never actually ordered it in fear of pukin' in front of a bunch of mexicans and them pointin' and laughin' at me. What a better way to try it than cookin' it at home myself?
First you gotta find the cow tongue. Since the Walmart closest to us didn't have tongue, we decided to go to a Walmart that was in Acworth which has quite the mexican population in parts. $9 later I had one big ass fat tongue.
I also bought some fresh cilantro, 6 roma tomatos, a couple jalapenos, fresh garlic and some yellow onions. I already had the spices I wanted to use at home......cumin, oregano, bay leaves (which I ended up not using) and peppercorns.
First thing's first. Get the tongue outta the package. This was the hardest part for me. After I finally stopped all the dry-heavin', I played with it for a while.....still almost pukin'.....
I decided to cook it in the slow cooker so I wouldn't have to watch the water level all day if I chose to boil it. Seriously, about to puke just lookin' at this picture. Crazy mexicans......
Quarter a big yellow onion, slice and take the seeds ('cuz as mexican as I like to pretend to be, I'm one big ass sissy and don't like eatin' food that burns just as much goin' in as it does comin' out), squish up 5-6 cloves of garlic, and chop up half a bunch of cilantro.
Throw it all in the crock pot with an ass ton of cumin, chili powder, cracked peppercorns, a bit of salt and oregano and a dash of cayenne pepper. Cover with water and put crop on low for about 8 hours.
For some reason I expected the whole house to smell likes ass, ok I mean tongue, if tongue had a smell, I was certain it'd smell like ass......The house actually smelled awesome.....all mexican like and stuff.
.....and I wanted to try my hand at cooking something authentic. I've always seen tacos de lengua on the menu at this little mexican joint we frequent. As much I've always wanted to order it (psht, yeah right), I've never actually ordered it in fear of pukin' in front of a bunch of mexicans and them pointin' and laughin' at me. What a better way to try it than cookin' it at home myself?
First you gotta find the cow tongue. Since the Walmart closest to us didn't have tongue, we decided to go to a Walmart that was in Acworth which has quite the mexican population in parts. $9 later I had one big ass fat tongue.
I also bought some fresh cilantro, 6 roma tomatos, a couple jalapenos, fresh garlic and some yellow onions. I already had the spices I wanted to use at home......cumin, oregano, bay leaves (which I ended up not using) and peppercorns.
First thing's first. Get the tongue outta the package. This was the hardest part for me. After I finally stopped all the dry-heavin', I played with it for a while.....still almost pukin'.....
I decided to cook it in the slow cooker so I wouldn't have to watch the water level all day if I chose to boil it. Seriously, about to puke just lookin' at this picture. Crazy mexicans......
Quarter a big yellow onion, slice and take the seeds ('cuz as mexican as I like to pretend to be, I'm one big ass sissy and don't like eatin' food that burns just as much goin' in as it does comin' out), squish up 5-6 cloves of garlic, and chop up half a bunch of cilantro.
Throw it all in the crock pot with an ass ton of cumin, chili powder, cracked peppercorns, a bit of salt and oregano and a dash of cayenne pepper. Cover with water and put crop on low for about 8 hours.
For some reason I expected the whole house to smell likes ass, ok I mean tongue, if tongue had a smell, I was certain it'd smell like ass......The house actually smelled awesome.....all mexican like and stuff.
8 hours later, it was time for the worst part....peeling the skin off the meat. Uaackkkk. <-----totally my pukin' sound. 
It turned out to not be as bad as I thought. I expected it to all come off in one tough layer, but it was more like pullin' the skin off a cooked piece of salmon. There were also some bits of tongue vessels that had to be removed.......(uacckkkk).
It turned out to not be as bad as I thought. I expected it to all come off in one tough layer, but it was more like pullin' the skin off a cooked piece of salmon. There were also some bits of tongue vessels that had to be removed.......(uacckkkk).
Shredding the tongue was pretty much the only option since it cooked so long in a crockpot. I'd rather eat shredded tongue over chunked tongue anyday.
Next, I chopped up the romas, half of another onion, another 5 cloves of garlic and another jalapeno.
Heat about 2 Tbls. of oil in a pan and add all the chopped veggies. Once the tomatos started gettin' soft, I added a cup of tongue stock and let it simmer a bit to get the onions a little softer.
Then I added the shredded tongue. Bickety bam....you got yourself some beef brisket for tacos......that's what I told everyone it was anyhow.
Once I finally remembered I had cooked this stuff, I was half lit so I forgot to take any pictures of the final product in it's fancy taco form. It really did taste EXACTLY like beef brisket that had been flavored all mexican. No funky ass gamey taste that I expected.No weird consistency. I will admit thought since I knew what it was I kinda had a hard time eating it at first, but everybody really liked it.......
Heat about 2 Tbls. of oil in a pan and add all the chopped veggies. Once the tomatos started gettin' soft, I added a cup of tongue stock and let it simmer a bit to get the onions a little softer.
Then I added the shredded tongue. Bickety bam....you got yourself some beef brisket for tacos......that's what I told everyone it was anyhow.
Once I finally remembered I had cooked this stuff, I was half lit so I forgot to take any pictures of the final product in it's fancy taco form. It really did taste EXACTLY like beef brisket that had been flavored all mexican. No funky ass gamey taste that I expected.No weird consistency. I will admit thought since I knew what it was I kinda had a hard time eating it at first, but everybody really liked it.......
....then I told 'em it was tongue. No one flipped out and some people were totally fine with it, but still the look on a couple people's faces were priceless.....they totally just ate tongue.
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