Co-Op Recipe: Instant Pot Lengua

MALT is a big fan of doing "taco night" for our monthly Community Meal. They're easy to scale out to feed any number of people, and they're well suited to different food preferences and restrictions because people can build their own.

One of the proteins on offer is lengua - or if you prefer, beef tongue. A lot of people get intimidated or disgusted when you call it that; others think it's complicated to prepare. In reality, it's an easy Instant Pot cook that tastes a lot like flavorful and tender pot roast!

We get our beef tongues from Walden Local Meat (which ships them frozen). They have an excellent selection of offal and other unusual cuts and preparations.

Tools & Ingredients

To make this yourself you'll need:

• About 20 minutes of active time and 1.5 hours of idle time
• An Instant Pot
• A cast iron or large stainless suitable for searing
• A cutting board and chef's knife
• 1 or 2 beef tongues (defrosted enough to bend)
• A small to medium onion
• Several cloves of garlic
• Seasoning blend for the pressure cook
  • Coriander, parsley, stock, etc.
• Seasoning blend for the stovetop
  • Paprika, ancho, cumin, black pepper, or a pre-made taco blend are all great choices here! (It's usually not spicy, but you do you.)

Steps

1. Unpackage your beef tongue(s) and give them a rinse. No need to dry them.
   1. Make sure they're defrosted enough to bend them to fit into the Instant Pot! But don't bother taking off the outermost layer of the tongue yet.
2. Roughly chop a small onion and a few cloves of garlic. Also consider adding jalapeno peppers, veggie scraps, lime quarters - you'll be discarding these solids, so consider anything that will add good flavor when pressure cooked.
3. Add the veggies to the bottom of the instant pot, and then add the tongues. An average sized Instant Pot will hold two average sized tongues, both curled up to fit next to each other.
4. Add enough water to just cover the tongues, and then ample amounts of salt. You can also add seasonings here: coriander, parsley, beef stock, Sazón, your own spice blend, etc.
   1. Keep in mind that we'll be using this as stock later, so flavor pays off.
5. Start the instant pot in pressure cooker mode, on high, for 45 to 75 minutes.
   1. Remember to lock the vent or it won't pressure cook.
   2. Remember that the timer won't start until it boils, which can take 10+ minutes extra!
   3. Less time will give more uniform cubes that hold their shape. More time will give more tender and pullable "shredded" meat.)
6. Set up a cutting board with some paper towels underneath to catch any drippings.
7. When the timer goes off, carefully set the valve to steam release (this can take several minutes due to the quantity of fluid). Use tongs to take the tongue out.
   1. Keep the fluid! We'll need it in a bit.
8. Use the tongs to hold the meat (it's still very hot!) while taking off the tough outer layer. It should peel off easily like in this photo.

9. Use the tongs to hold the meat (it's still very hot!) and cut it into a small to large dice, depending on your preference.
   1. Larger cubes will generally hold up better and look nicer, but will result in milder flavor.

At this point, your beef tongue is perfectly edible, so make sure to steal a few bites! This can be a good stage to freeze it, or to use it for other applications (like slicing "rounds" as a kind of deli meat). However, i's a dense cut of meat and even when pressure cooked, it will be moist but not have picked up much from the seasoning.

10. Start a large pan at high heat, and add a small amount of oil (canola or something else high heat works best). Wait for it to preheat.
11. Add half of the meat - you want to make sure you don't crowd the pan! The goal is to add some nice crispy edges, not to cook it any further. This should only take a few minutes if the temperature is high enough.
12. Empty the pan, setting aside the meat on a plate. Wait for it to come to heat again, and then repeat the process with the other half of the meat.
13. Empty the pan, set the temperature to low, and scrape any crispy bits from the bottom (leaving them in the pan).
14. Add all of the meat back in, then season it with your choice of spice blend and mix thoroughly.
    1. Now that it's chopped, it has much more surface area to coat, so you can be generous.
15. Pour the fluid from the pressure cook into the hot pan - a bit more than you might think, but not enough that the meat chunks are floating.
    1. Either do it carefully, or use a strainer, to avoid any other solids falling in.
16. Let the meat simmer for a few minutes before tasting so that the flavors can incorporate. Have a taste with both some meat and broth, and then adjust salt and seasoning to taste.

We often serve this over homemade tortillas as tacos, but it also makes great burritos, goes well over rice, and freezes perfectly.