Braised Ox Tongue in Madeira Sauce

Braised Ox Tongue in Madeira Sauce served with Tagliatelle

French are like Chinese, they eat everything, today I am doing Ox Tongue.

Ingredients :

1 ox tongue (approximately 1.8 kg)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 shallots, minced
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1 tbsp tomato paste
6 cups beef stock
3 tbsp madeira
1/2 tsp dried thyme
7 button mushroom, sliced
7 cornichon (gherkins), sliced
salt & pepper to taste

First have to prepare the tongue, trim any extraneous matter on the underneath and large end of the tongue.  To freshen the tongue, and to dissolve any clinging saliva and remove all blood, scrub the tongue with a vegetable brush under warm running water, then let soak 2-3 hours in a sinkful of cold water, add a cup of vinegar.  After soaking, drain.

Ox tongue before cooking

In an enamled bowl, marinate the ox tongue with coarse salt, place a waxed paper on top, and a plate and refrigerate overnight.

Ox tongue after soaking and marinated in salt

Ox tongue ready for refrigerator

The next day, wash of the salt and place the tongue in a pot, boil for at least 2 hours.  Skim off any greyish scum until it ceases to rise.  If the tongue is not salted, add salt.
Drain and let the tongue cool.  When the tongue is cool enough, remove the outer skin.  Trim the fatty parts away, any loose meaty part and any bones. Then make about 1 cm thick slices.
To cook the sauce, place the oil and butter in the pan, then the shallots.  When the shallots are transparent, add the flour, then add the tomato paste, beef stock, madeira, thyme and mushroom.  Bring to boil, then add the sliced ox tongue.  Let it boil for about 5 minutes, then transfer to roasting dish, cover with tin foil and place in the oven at 160°C for an hour.

Ox tongue ready for oven

Remove from oven, and place the ox tongue in a pot, add the cornichon and reduce the sauce.  This may take up to 30 minutes.

Ox tongue ready to serve

Beef Stew

Beef stew served with salad

There are so many different style of cooking beef stew, so many names to it too!  In France, the ones that has tomatoes and red wine, are the famous Beef Bourguignon and in the south they call it Beef Daube.  Beef Daube has a tinge of orange.  Looking through the web, I found that there are so many different ingredients that are added to it and lazy cook hates cooking on the stove because the fire is just next to my tummy and standing there watching over the beef stew makes my tummy real HOT!  After looking through the famous Jamie Oliver, the Naked Chef website, I found one stew that is cooked in the oven.  I love cooking with the oven, just throw the things in, set the time and temperature and just go watch TV while its cooking, no HOT tummy!  Here is the inspiration from Jamie, http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/jools-s-favourite-beef-stew

Today I am cooking for 10 people, so here is my recipe:
2 kg beef cube
2 tbsp olive oil
5 medium size potatoes, cut into bite sizes
2 medium size carrots, cut into bite sizes
a head of garlic, peeled
1 big onion, julienne
a small can of tomato puree
1 tbsp of all purpose flour
75 cl red wine
2 cups beef stock
1 tsp herbs de provence
Salt and pepper

Place the beef cube in the roasting pan, marinate with salt, pepper, herbs de provence and olive oil.

Marinated beef

 Place them in the oven at 220°C for 10 minutes.  Jamie sears them in a cooking pot, but lazy cook hates washing dishes so I put them in the oven instead.

Beef after 10 minutes in the oven at 220°C

Add the onions, tomato puree, beef stock, wine, flour and mix well.  This time I forgot the wine but added more water, but came out okay.  In the oven for 1 hour, I cooked them without cover, I think next time I would try to cook them covered.

Ready for the oven

Remove from the oven and add the potatoes, carrots and garlic.  Back in the oven for another hour, but this time I check them after half hour, and next time I think I would cook them covered.

Ready for oven after adding potatoes, carrots and garlic

Ready to serve

Beef Rendang

It took a long time before the lazy cook became friends with curries.  Living in Malaysia, we eat curry every day and don't have to cook them, there are warungs (hawker joints) everywhere and I own a few restaurants and have the luxury of telling my chefs what my urge for the day was.  Unfortunately, good days has gotta come to an end.  After so many failures, there are bound to be success, I believe!  So here is my take on Beef Rendang

Ingredients :
1 kg beef ( here in France, we buy it ready cubed)
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
3 cloves
1 cup coconut milk
1 tbsp tamarind pulp
10 kaffir lime leaves, julienne
5 tbsp kerisik
1 tsp brown sugar
salt to taste

Rempah (Spice Paste)
2 medium size onions
2 shallots
3 cloves garlic
a dash of lemon grass powder
1 tbsp baba brand meat chilli powder

My blender broke down, so this time instead of making the spice paste into puree, I julienne the onions and shallots and use garlic paste that I bought.
In a pot, over medium heat, add 2 tbsp oil, then add 1 cinnamon stick, 1 star anise and 3 cloves for about a minute.  Then instead of adding the rempah, I add the onions, shallots, garlic, a dash of lemon grass powder and baba brand meat chilli powder, I wanted my curry to be more spicy, so I add a tsp of super duppa hot chilli powder.  If you can find lemon grass, then add 1 stalk into the paste. I cook a lot of curry for my French customers, and cannot cook them too hot, this one is specially for me so havta be super duppa hot! If it is a bit dry add a bit more oil, cook for about 5 minutes then add the beef cubes.  Stir for about 5 minutes then add the coconut milk, stir for a minute, then add a cup of tamarind water (water from the tamarind pulp), stir for 5 minutes, then add the kaffir lime leaves, kerisik (stir fried dessicated coconut), brown sugar and salt. In France, I can find kaffir lime leaves frozen or dry, I like the frozen one.  I keep adding water to my tamarind pulp and when the rendang gets too dry, I add the water from the tamarind pulp, cook for about an hour.  Since this time I bought very cheap cut of tough beef, I cook it for another half hour.
If you don't have chilli powder, just add some ginger powder, galangal powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, cardamon powder and chilli powder.  About 1 tsp cumin powder, 1 tbsp coriander powder, chilli powder according to how spicy you want your rendang.  ginger powder, galangal powder, cardamon powder, just a dash.  If you can find ginger and galangal fresh, about an inch each.  Lazy cook loves to use only dry ingredients to save time, money and washing up.  Taste, errrr..., away from Malaysia, NOT BAD!!

Beef Rendang