Saturday night I went to a friends house for dinner, and because I have eaten so much tongue over the past week I thought I would bring what's left of it with me.  My thinking was this way I would be contributing to dinner as well as getting rid of the tongue.  Truthfully, I'm not sure how much more tongue I can take.

This concoction is once again a tribute to Fergus Henderson.  In The Whole Beast Mr. Henderson does a salad with chunks of bread, various lettuces and thin slices of cold tongue.  This is dressed with his green sauce, of which I have a lot left over from earlier this week.  Mr. Henderson also inspired me to try radish top salad, which has since turned into one of my favorites, so instead of searching out many different lettuces I used radish tops.

I began by thinly slicing the tongue.

Slices of tongue, and what's left of the tip

There is sauce and bread under all that tongue.

Looks a little weird, I have to admit.

Dinner.

I love lunch, it's my favorite meal.  Long leisurely lunches shared with friends and multiple bottles of wine, quick lunches standing on the street, lunch by myself at home with the contents of my fridge.  All of them.

Today I had a tongue sandwich, with a few slices of tomatoes and a good smear of mustard.  Once again I did fry my tongue slices, as I've said previously I think this is my favorite way of eating corned beef tongue.

Sliced tongue with some tomatoes before it's fried.

The fully assembled sandwich.

The last few bites.

This is the first meal of tongue.  Very simply I thinly sliced the tongue and fried the slices with a little oil and served it with Fergus Hendersons green sauce and some mashed potatoes alongside some nice broccoli and beans fresh from the market.

Tongue in the pan.

Average dinner chaos.

Dinner, in all its glory.

Now that my tongue is defrosted it's going into a pot with two carrots (tops included) two onions, a handful of garlic cloves, a couple celery stalks and about a dozen peppercorns.

Before I added the water.

Boiling for about an hour and a half.

Tongue peelin'

My snack.

Finally I'm back on track with my tongue.  I will be boiling it for dinner tomorrow and serving it with with potatoes, Fergus Henderson's green sauce and green beans.  Felt like I had to share an image of my frozen brined tongue. 

Because of an urgent family situation I'll be out of the country for the rest of the week.  Sadly, my tongue is going to have to wait until I get back  The plan is to take the tongue out of the brine, rinse it, freeze it and then give it an nice slow thaw and proceed with the boiling, peeling and eating when I get back.

My apologies for the delay, hopefully I'll be back next week.

Just a quick update on the tongue.  It's been four days since it went in the brine, and there is a startling change in its colour.  It seems to have turned purple, almost like it's been sneaking into the freezer and getting friendly with a grape popsicle.

This is going to be a multi-entry series about the process of making a corned beef tongue.  I'll be brining my tongue for one week, after that the tongue will be ready for a nice long boil, and a peel.  Then all that's left to do is eat.   One tongue will be plenty of food for two people, which is the amount I generally cook for. I'm thinking of making some tongue sandwiches, maybe a hash and I will definitely be making Fergus Henderson's tongue and bread.

First the brine.  I'm using Fergus Henderson's ratio of 2 cups sugar to 2 1/4 cup salt (I used kosher) dissolved into 2 quarts of water, then I added 12 peppercorns, 12 juniper berries and 5 whole allspice berries. Brought this mixture up to a boil, then poured it into a couple bowls and cups to cool.