Beef Tongue in Rich Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:
1 2 to 3 lb beef tongue
4c cider, wine, beer, stock, or combination thereof.
3 cloves garlic, whole
Fresh herbs.
6-7 cloves Garlic, minced
1 onion
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/3 soy sauce
2 c beer – preferably Strong Brown ale or Belgian-style
2-3 tbsp tamarind paste
2 tbsp molasses
4 pcs thick cut bacon, cut into lardons
3 tbsp fresh tarragon
1 14 oz can tomatoes

Wash the tongue. You can scrub it, or you can blanch it in boiling water with a cup of vinegar added to it, like I did.
Rinse out pot or pressure cooker. Add tongue, 4 cups of cooking liquid (as above), fresh herbs, and garlic cloves. Braise for 1 hours (pressure cooker) or 2 hours (normal pot).
Towards the end of this time, fry the bacon in a medium-sized pot and reserve it, leaving the rendered fat in the pan. Saute the onion in the bacon fat until it is nearly translucent. Add the garlic and saute. Add the tomato paste and saute until it browns slightly. (You need to be done cooking the tongue by this time if you're using the pressure cooker.) Add the can of tomatoes, 2 ½ cups of the braising liquid, the bay leaf, the soy sauce, the beer, the tamarind, the molasses and the tarragon. Let cook for 20 minutes. Puree the sauce in small batches in a blender or food processor. Thicken the sauce if you like.
Remove the outer layer of skin from the tongue. It should slough off very easily now. Cut the tongue into slices. Add the tongue slices and the bacon lardons to the sauce. Cook 10 minutes. Serve.

Number of Servings: 8

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user MSDESERTRODENT.