Beef tongue stir fried with onion and pineapple is a familiar dish to pick at over drinks. The appeal is springy slices of tongue carrying sate chili oil, with sour pineapple and sweet onion alongside.
The difficulty is clearing the smell, as a rushed job leaves the membrane on and the smell behind. The tongue is blanched for 5 to 7 minutes, cooled, then rubbed with salt for another 3 to 5 minutes. In the pan it needs only 3 to 5 minutes to reach just done, as longer cooking dries the meat out.
This batch weighs about 2kg, at roughly 89 calories per 100g.
Method
Rinse the beef tongue with the juice of 1 lime mixed with a little salt and water.
Bring 500ml water to a boil, blanch the beef tongue for 5 to 7 minutes, lift it out to cool, then rub salt over the surface for 3 to 5 minutes, rinse with clean water, drain and cut into bite sized pieces.
Peel the pineapple, remove the eyes, rinse it and cut into bite sized pieces. Peel the onion and cut it into wedges. Trim the celery, rinse it and cut into lengths. Peel and mince the garlic and shallot. Cut the bird's eye chili on the diagonal.
Marinate the beef tongue with half the minced garlic and shallot, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon seasoning powder, 1/2 teaspoon kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, 1/2 teaspoon MSG, 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper, 1 teaspoon fish sauce and 2 teaspoons cooking oil, mix well and leave for 20 minutes.
Set a pan with 3 teaspoons cooking oil and fry the remaining garlic and shallot with 1 teaspoon sate chili oil over medium heat until fragrant.
Add the beef tongue and stir fry for 3 to 5 minutes, and once it is just done, add the pineapple, 1 teaspoon seasoning powder and 1 teaspoon kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, tossing for another 3 to 5 minutes.
Add the onion, celery and bird's eye chili, stir fry another 3 minutes, adjust the seasoning and turn off the heat.
Tips
Blanching the beef tongue and then rubbing it with salt a second time clears the membrane and the smell.
A long stir fry dries the tongue out and costs it the springy texture.
Sliced across the grain at about half a finger joint thick is the right cut for beef tongue.
Onion and celery go in last so they keep their crunch.
The pineapple goes in last with only a few turns, since longer cooking softens it and draws out sour juice.
Need kOBE Monk Fruit Blend?
The recipe above is sweetened with kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, measured 1:1 like sugar. See the product page or send us a message.