This is technically a dish made with leftovers. First, the broth. A 1.8 kilogram beef (ox) tongue went into the slow cooker two days ago. After lifting the whole tongue from the cooking liquid, I divided it into three portions for three separate meals.
(If you’re curious, the first portion we had as taco filling. The second became salpicao and the third is still sitting in the fridge.)
So, after the three blocks of tongue had been wrapped in cling film and stored in the fridge, I was about to discard the cooking liquid when my younger daughter, Alex, exclaimed, “But why?” She had that look on her face that clearly articulated the unequivocal subtext of her exclamation. Why was I being wasteful?
Okay, beef tongue is an organ meat. Like most organ meats, it has a strong smell. I could claim that I normally throw away the liquid in which any organ meat has been cooked, but that wouldn’t be true. When I cook kare-kare, I use the broth made by simmering ox tail as the base for the sauce. When I made ox tripe soup, the broth is the water in which the tripe slow cooked.
I don’t know what it is about the liquid in which beef tongue has been cooked. Perhaps, because I often add too many herbs and spices, by the time the meat is tender, the concentration of flavors and aromas in the cooking liquid was often overwhelming.
But there’s one thing I discovered recently. If Alex had not sounded quite scandalized with my intention to throw away the beef tongue broth, I would never have known. But I did pause and we both tasted the broth.
It turns out that if you cook beef tongue in water with nothing but salt and black peppercorns, the cooking liquid tastes like beef bone broth.
So, I poured the cooled broth into a container, covered the container and put it in the fridge. Earlier today, I used it to made a soup.
But I did say that this is “a dish made with leftovers” so there has to be at least a second leftover, right? Right. But it’s not my leftover. You see, there’s a purveyor that delivers newly-harvested vegetables to my doorstep (no, this is not a sponsored post and I am not affiliated with them). And there’s always a freebie with every order. I’m presuming that excess from the harvest are distributed among the customers. With the last delivery came five ears or sweet yellow corn. That’s the second “leftover” used to make this soup.
The broth from the beef tongue was poured into a pot. Into it went three potatoes that I had peeled and cut into small cubes. Joining the potatoes were the kernels from two ears of corn. And, for even more flavor, I threw in the corn cobs too. When the broth started boiling, I lowered the heat, covered the pot and simmered the potatoes and corn for about half an hour.
Off the heat, the cobs were lifted off and discarded. A handful of fried shallots were added and everything was processed with an immersion blender. I didn’t puree the potatoes and corn all the way. I stopped while there were still discernible bits visible.
Equipment
- Immersion blender
Ingredients
- 4 cups broth (see notes)
- 3 medium potatoes (choose floury over waxy)
- 2 ears sweet yellow corn
- salt
- ground black pepper
- ¼ to ½ cup fried shallots (see notes)
- 2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- Pour the broth into a pot and start heating it.
- Peel the potatoes and cut into half-inch cubes. Add to the broth.
- Cut off the corn kernels and add to the potatoes in the broth. Throw in the cobs too.
- When the broth boils, lower the heat, cover the pot and simmer the vegetables for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes are quite mushy.
- Taste the broth and add more salt or pepper, or both, as needed.
- Take the pot off the stove and plunge in the immersion blender. Process for half a minute then add the fried shallots. Continue processing until the soup is thick but there are still visible bits of potato and corn.
- Stir in the butter until melted and blended.
