Lamb Tongue Confit with Lentils and Gremolata

After posting about my lamb tongue confit last week, the reaction I received ranged from intrigue to disgust.  This post is more for those who were curious as to how I would serve the lamb tongues, although I hope that it just may win over a few of you horrified readers as well.  An under-appreciated (at least when it comes to the culinary world) organ like tongue deserves a similarly under-appreciated accompaniment, so I served it over a humble bowl of lentils.  In order to brighten up both the flavor and the color of this heavy, brown dish, I topped each bowl with a spoonful of gremolata.  The one rule to follow with lamb tongue no matter how you serve it is to disguise it by slicing it thinly.  The meat is delicious—distinctively lamby and not too far off from lamb shank—and has surprisingly appetizing texture, but no one really want to be confronted with a shimmering tongue on a plate.  So whether you tell them about the mystery meat or not, do your guests a favor and slice it thin.  That way, few will complain when you slip them a little tongue. 

Lamb Tongue Confit with Lentils and Gremolata
Serves 4
 

Ingredients:

• 8 confit lamb tongues

For the lentils:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 medium carrot, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 3 sprigs thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1.5 cups water
• 1 cup French lentils

For the gremolata:

• 2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 1 tsp garlic, minced
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest

Directions:

1. To make the lentils, heat the olive oil over medium heat in a medium sauce pan.  Add the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft and beginning to brown, approximately 10 minutes.  Season the vegetables with salt and pepper as they cook. 
2. Add the tomato paste, thyme, and bay leaf to the pan.  Stir to coat all of the vegetables with the tomato paste and let the mixture cook for about 2 minutes.
3. Pour the water into the pan and bring to a boil.
4. Stir in the lentils and let the mixture return to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer. 
5. Partially cover the pan and cook until the lentils are tender, 30 to 45 minutes.  Taste the lentils for salt and pepper and keep warm over low heat.
6. As the lentils cook, make the gremolata by combining the parsley, garlic, and lemon zest in a small bowl.
7. Heat the lamb tongues (a minute or two in the microwave works fine) and slice them thinly.
8. Serve the lentils in individual bowls, topped with slices of lamb tongue and a spoonful of the gremolata.  

Lamb Tongue Confit

 

My curiosity tends to get the best of me when I see strange cuts of meat at the butcher.  I may be in line to buy pork chops, but if I see duck hearts behind the glass, all thoughts of pork go out the window. God help me the day I spot a bull penis.

The other day, I went to one of my favorite butcher's, Dickson's Farmstand Meats, to pick up some pretty standard fare: lamb chops, bacon, and pork shoulder.  As I was picking out my lamb chops, I noticed a small pile of what looked exactly I imagined a lamb tongue would look like.  Sure enough, the butcher confirmed that the ugly things that looked just like tongues, were indeed tongues.  I never imagined that one could even eat a lamb's tongue, so after seeing them, I had to buy them.  I purchased all seven of the tongues, which I assume must be exactly how many lambs the shop had butchered in the past few days because who else in their right mind would purchase the things?

Being from Dickson's, the lamb tongues I purchased were from local, sustainably raised lambs, which I'm going to assume hope means that my tongues had only touched wholesome things (one can only imagine what Lindsay Lohan's tongue must taste like...eek).  In other words, I had to do these tongues justice.  My first thought was to braise them which is usually the method I choose when I have no clue how else to cook something, but I wanted do something that was less familiar.  After doing some research, I found that confiting was a popular method of cooking lamb tongues.

This marked my first time confiting anything, but the method is pretty standard no matter what meat you choose to confit.  The first step is to cure the meat in a mixture of salt and herbs.  I purchased about a pound of lamb tongues and used one-and-one-third teaspoons of salt, a minced shallot, a minced garlic clove, a teaspoon of black pepper, and a teaspoon of herbs de Provence.  So long as you keep the meat to salt ratio the same, you can experiment with any combination of seasonings.  I rubbed this mixture all of the lamb tongues, covered them, and placed them in the refrigerator overnight to soak in all the good flavors.

The next day, I removed the tongues from the refrigerator, rinsed off the seasonings, and patted them dry.  I then place the tongues in a cast iron pot, covered them with olive oil, covered the pot, and placed them in a 225 degree oven.  I cooked the tongues until they were tender, which took about 3 hours.  I then let them cool enough so that I could handle them. 

Once cool enough to handle, I peeled the skin off of each tongue and cut off the core.  I have to admit that this part made me slightly squeamish as the tongues feel like...tongues.  Once I got over that, it was easy as the skin peels right away. Here is how they looked after removing the skins:

I then placed the tongues back into the oil, making sure that there was enough oil to cover them, and put them in the refrigerator for a later use.  They will keep for a couple of weeks.

Now that I have a container full of lamb tongue confit, I have a few ideas of how to use them.  In salads or over lentils or beans are my first thoughts, but what about you?  How would you serve lamb tongue confit?