Cooking Ox Tongue

You have probably looked apprehensively at that pinky, black mottled monstrosity in the cold counter in your local butcher. Here in Botswana is is displayed, not very appetizingly alongside more expensive cuts of meat, and so one is rather forced to gaze upon it.
However, like so many other "peculiar looking" food like prawns, crayfish, eel, the appearance belies the taste. Ox tongue is absolutely delicious and an old traditional English cold cut. In out region it is either cooke to be used cold in sandwiches or as part of a stew or relish to be eaten as a main meal with a starch accompaniment.

The intial cooking for both methods is similar. It is best to cook it whole even for stews because it is easier to remove the membrane covering on the meat.

Very simply, rinse the whole raw tongue well. Trim off any little tubes, fatty and dangly bits that you see and put the whole piece into a pressure cooker. A good teaspoon of salt and start cooking. You can cook this on the stove top, but it takes 5hrs or more to get a tender result.
I add 10 whole black pepper corns and 2 whole cloves. Add a large chopped carrot and garlic if you wish. Cover the tongue with water and then cook for 2 and a half hours in the pressure cooker so it is just hissing. That is medium pressure. Let the cooker depressurize and remove the tongue. Whilst it is fairly hot, use a knife or fork to pull off the outer covering on the tongue. It is thick on top, (the licking side!) and more fragile on the underside.
Here you can see the membrane peeling: Just pull it off in bits.

 Clean off anymore bits of yucky stuff and then press the tongue into as small a container as you can. Find something heavy to put on top. (A couple of washed bricks wrapped in clingfilm is great) Let it cool then refrigerate. It is now ready for slicing. You can slice it all and freeze portions or eat it up within a week.

To eat it hot in a stew. I simply cut the tongue into steaks, then strips and return them to the pot. Fish out the cloves. Add another onion and garlic and chilli to taste. Add peeled potatatoes if you intend to serve this stew with potatoes. You may need to add a bit of water. Pressure cook again for 40 minutes. Open the pot and reduce the liquor by simmering gently. 
This is the very basic way of serving oxtail in a traditional African way. Sometimes is is just boiled and the resulting gravy is all there is to eat with it. It is often eaten as relish with mealie pap or sorghum pap in our region.
Close up of texture or the relish.

Offally nice pigs trotters with chilli

Here they are......dont be scared!!

However.....Even I make a few modifications to the traditional methods! For a start, with a heavy chefs knife or preferably a cleaver, whack off the hoofy bits at the ends. That way you will find even quite squeamish people will eat it!! Or trot off to your butcher and ask him to do it for you.

Ingredients

1 Large trotter per person.This recipe is aiming at 4 servings.

2 large onions

whole clove of garlic smashed and chopped and papery bits removed

cup of rose wine or white if you dont have rose.

1 large fresh jalapeno chilli per 2 trotters. So 2 for 4 or 1 small chilli for 1.

You can use other types of chillis but jalapeno is common, not too fiery and has thick flesh and good flavour.

Quarter cup vegetable oil

Method

Put the oil in a heavy pot and chuck the trotters in. Try and get a bit of color onto them without burning them.

Brown the onions and garlic in the same pot.

Now add the wine, chillies and enough water to cover. Simmer for 2 to 3 hours. Check the liquid and add so that nothing burns. As the trotters cook, the gelatine can burn very easily. BE CAREFUL. Slow heat and long cooking is the key. The onions should break up and dissapear and you should be able to carefully reduce the liquor to a nice sauce/gravy. This is not a dish you can leave bubbling on the stove. It needs watching especially for the last hour.

Here it is....

If you add baby potatoes and carrots to the pot for the last hour, your diners will never know why they taste so good!

Savoury kidneys on toast for breakfast.

English breakfast part one.
Throughout Africa this traditional English breakfast is still cooked but with a few variations.

Generally the kidneys are ox kidneys and sometimes lambs kidneys. A great delicacy is Baffalo kidneys. They all follow the basic recipe...
500g kidneys for 3 servings.
1 large onion peeled and roughly chopped
2 pieces of garlic sliced
Small Pinch of thyme or rosemary...NOT both
Salt.
Tspn Ground black pepper.
Vegetable oil or olive oil
Brown the kidneys with the onions and other ingredients in same pan. Add a little red wine or water and simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes or until onions have completely softened and there is a sauce. Not too watery. It may not be particularly slimming but often quite a bit of oil is used to cook with and this captures the flavors and makes a delicious sauce to go on the toast!