Ingredients

6 Lambs Tongues

Method

Blanch and refresh the tongues. That is put them in pan with enough water to cover, simmer gently for one and a quarter to one and a half hours. Drain tongues, plunge them into a bowl of cold water and skin them. Trim and cut away the root.

Preheat the oven to 350 F or 180 C.

Remove the rind from the bacon, stretch each rasher under the blade of a heavy knife and place them at the bottom of a flameproof casserole. Slice the onions, carrots and celery, put in the casserole and cover. Cook over gentle heat for 10-12 minutes or until the bacon starts to brown. Place the tongues on top of the vegetables, add bouquet garni, peppercorns and the half a pint of stock. Cover the tongues with a double thickness of greaseproof paper and the lid and braise for 45 minutes in the pre-heated oven.

(Note: This braising is to give the tongues extra flavour, but they must be quite tender before the process is started, so do not cut the inital stewing time.)

To prepare the sauce: melt the butter, add shallot or onion and cook slowly for 2 minutes, stir in the flour and continue cooking until onion and flour are deep brown. Take the pan off the heat, blend in half a pint of the stock, the tomato puree and sherry; return to the heat and stir until boiling. Then, with the lid half off the pan, simmer gently for 15-20 minutes. Pour in half the remaining stock, skim sauce and reboil, simmer for 5 minutes. Pour rest of stock into sauce, skim again and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Strain, cover and set aside.

Take up tongues, strain off the braising liquid, return it to the pan and boil hard until it is reduced by half. Add the sauce to this liquid, taste for seasoning and boil up together. Return tongues to casserole and keep warm while beating the potato puree and taking up the spinach creams.

Serve with Spinach Creams and 1 lb potatoes (cooked and beaten to a puree with 1/2 oz butter, 4 tablespoons hot milk, salt and pepper)

To serve: place the potato puree in the serving dish, take up the tongues, slice in half and arrange on top. Turn out the spinach creams and place round the dish. Boil up the sauce and spoon over just enough to coat the tongues and the base of the dish; serve the rest separately in a sauce boat.