CookEat Recipe
Beef Tongue en Papillottes
Braised beef tongue layered with raw ham and mushroom sauce, cooked and served in six closed paper parcels.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Have the raw prepared mirepoix, ready finished liquid demi-glace and finished tomato sauce to hand. Neatly trim one medium fresh unsalted beef tongue. Spread the raw mirepoix in a braising pan, lay the tongue on it, season with one teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of pepper, and spread two tablespoons of lard over the vegetables. Cook on the hob for ten minutes.
Step 2
Preheat a conventional oven to 180°C. Add one quart of water, one gill of claret, one gill of ready liquid demi-glace and one gill of tomato sauce. Cover and boil for ten minutes, then braise in the oven, turning the tongue in the gravy every half hour. Check after two hours and continue as necessary until the tongue is soft when pierced with a skewer or knife and its centre has reached at least 160°F.
Step 3
Lift out the tongue and plunge it briefly in clean cold water until safe to handle. While still warm, peel off its skin with a clean coarse towel and remove any gristly root. Cut the peeled tongue into twelve even slices. Keep the slices hot on a clean plate while making the sauce.
Step 4
Skim the fat from the cooking liquor and reduce it on the hob to one pint. Measure this reduction before straining it into another saucepan.
Step 5
Finely chop twelve canned mushrooms. Add them to the strained liquor with four tablespoons of bread crumbs and two tablespoons of sherry. Boil for ten minutes, then keep the sauce hot for assembly.
Step 6
Cut twelve thin slices of uncooked cured ham, each the same size as a tongue slice. Keep the raw ham and its utensils separate from cooked ingredients until assembly. Cut six fifteen-inch squares of oven-safe food parchment, fold each in half and cut into a half-heart shape; open and lightly oil both sides. Preheat the conventional oven to 400°F.
Step 7
For each packet, place one ham slice on one half of the paper and spread a little hot sauce over it. Add one tongue slice, a little more sauce, a second tongue slice, more sauce and a final ham slice. Repeat with all twelve tongue slices and all twelve ham slices to make six packets. Fold the paper over and twist the edges closed. Put the packets in a single layer on a supported baking tray, away from the oven walls and heating elements.
Step 8
Bake for ten minutes before checking. Continue as necessary until both ham layers and the middle of every packet reach at least 71°C, using a clean fine-tip thermometer and taking care with escaping steam. Keep each parcel closed for service and serve immediately.
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