Pork Tongue: Part 2

There are a few ways to cook tongue. For the recipe in part one of this post I poached the tongue. I also have used a pressure cooker (45 minutes at 15 lbs). Yet a third way is a slow cooker. Tried and true. The curry recipe I used is actually written for goat meat, but it worked really wonderfully for the tongue, too. 

To cook the tongues, I put them in a crock pot water (just enough to cover), a few shakes of worcestershire, a cup of dry white wine I happened to have open in the fridge, a diced onion, half a chopped green pepper, and a couple bay leaves. I let it cook all day while I was at work. After they are done, they look like this:

Pork tongues right after they have come out of the crock pot. You can see in the photo that the skin hangs on them like soft paper. This is the best time to peel them because the skin will come off easily.

Discard the cooking liquid or reserve it as broth for another dish. Peel the tongues while they are still warm so the skin comes off fairly easily. Then slice them against the grain in thin oval slices. Put the sliced tongue back in the crock pot to await the other ingredients (below).

Cooked, peeled, and sliced pork tongue.

Jamaican Pork Tongue Curry

Ingredients
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp black mustard seed
1 onion, chopped
6-8 Tbsp curry powder
1 tsp allspice powder (this is what makes it Jamaican)
2 tsp ground coriander seed
2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced
4-5 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 can coconut milk
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
2-3 cooked, peeled, and sliced pork tongues
salt to taste
3-4 c. water
5 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

Heat the oil in a deep saute pan. Add the mustard seed and curry powder. When the mustard seed begins to pop, add the allspice, coriander, ginger, garlic, and onion. Cook a few minutes, until the onion is clear and rendered. Add the coconut milk and tomatoes and salt to taste. Stir and heat thoroughly. Add this curry mixture to the sliced tongue in the crock pot. Add the water and let cook for 2-3 hours. Add the potatoes in the last hour of cooking. Serve over rice and enjoy. 

As with most dishes you might bring home from your favorite Indian restaurant, the leftovers just get better as they sit in the fridge, and the same is true for this dish. You won't believe you made it yourself. It's that good.