Ox tongue with gravy
October 2, 2007
Filed under Christmas & New Year, Purely experimental, School lunchbox
If you prefer the ox tongue (lengua) dish with mushroom sauce, you can click here and here. Personally, I am so tired of that recipe and that’s the reason I started experimenting. I was aiming for something not too different from the one with mushroom sauce because that’s the favorite of my daughter, Sam.
I sliced a cooked ox tongue then divided the meat into two unequal portions. The larger portion we had for dinner the other night. Served a la Chinese style cold meat, we ate the ox tongue slices with a dipping sauce made with a mixture of soy sauce and hoisin sauce. The smaller portion became the ox tongue with gravy dish that you see in the photo and which went into the kids’ lunch boxes yesterday.
Why is lengua considered a special dish? It’s not everyday that you’ll find it on the dining table of the average Filipino family. Not that it’s not widely available. It is, actually. But it is a prized meat cut usually reserved for parties.
One reason is the cost. But that’s really relative because there are cuts of beef that are more expensive that ox tongue and they are used for rather common dishes.
Another reason is the cooking time. Ooohh, it just takes forever to simmer ox tongue to the desired tenderness. On the average, it takes four to five hours; twice as fast if you have a pressure cooker.
In the mood for more food?
Comments
About Pinoy Cook
- About the author
- Cooking philosophy
- Food photography
- The noche buena section
- Product review policy
- Terms of use
- Privacy policy
- Recipe archive
- Published articles
- Food from all over
- E-mail the author
Readers
Noche Buena
- Pre-Christmas callos
- Tiramisu, party style
- Food: the perfect Christmas gift
- Chicken embutido
- Mango cream pie
- Kalabasa (squash) and potato soup
- Tilapia fritters with honey-lemon sauce
- Pork ears barbecue
- Christmas ham from Majestic
- Ox tongue with gravy
Oh, so sweet!
- Midnight snack: crepes, bananas and guava jelly
- Mandarin Orange Royale
- Mango Royale
- Mango and jelly (jango) dessert
- Mango-rum sorbet
- Refrigerator cake
- Coffee jelly dessert
- Chocolate-pinipig balls inspired by Magnolia’s pinipig crunch
- Mocha pudding
- Crepes a la mode
Sidenotes
- Peach and cherry upside-down cake for dessert tonight. Home-baked, naturally. 3 days ago
- Just got back from the supermarket. Lots of veggie dishes in the next couple of days. 3 days ago
- I thought PLDT sucks. Globe is worse. http://tinyurl.com/6fhnzc Of course, they're dying to make amends now. 4 days ago
- More updates...
-
Order now!
-
In focus
Ah lengua. This used to be a regular during special occasions. Since my mom stopped cooking, we haven’t had this. I guess it’s my turn to try this. I dunno if the recipes of my mom are still around. However, it’s nice to know that there is a recipe i can always rely on at this site.
my lola taught me to boil the tongue, peel the thick skin before actually cooking it with the rest of the ingredients.
cooking ox tongue really takes a lot of patience but really worth it.
peterb, i can smell christmas already hehehe
rose z, oh my daughter Sam will definitely agree. Lengua is her absolute home-cooked dish.
Maybe removing the thick skin is a Filipino thing? I’ve had ox tongue here in Thailand, cooked either by a French or Chinese chef, always with the skin on. It was one of the dishes on the buffet spread, and I was the only one who ate it, yummy! Sometimes it’s cooked with red wine, other times with brown sauce, mushrooms, and garlic.
Once on a potluck, a Pinoy guest brought ox tongue cooked very similarly to callos, one Dutch guest gushed at how delicious it was. But he stopped eating when he learned which body part it was, hehehe.
I like the taste of lengua but the only problem is I have to cook low fat because my husband’s cholesterol is above normal. I’m surprised that the tongue has so much fat though, I thought it’s pure muscle.