Braised cow tongue empanadas, pepper foam & chimichuri

"Ewwwww!!!", is what most of you would say after reading the name of the post. Hahah... but it's not ew, it's good and sexy!!!!

This dish was made for my tasting menu while I was doing my culinary degree in Chicago about 2 years ago, and was inspired by a similar dish which was on the menu of Graham Elliot; where I was working for a while. I really loved the dish that was served there and I wanted to create something similar but different. The dish sparked my craziness for empanadas and working at Graham Elliot's made me a better cook and l learned a lot from the chefs there.

For our tasting menu, we had to make 5 courses and I chose one of these. I was working with beef tongue for the first time and had to research a bit and ask a couple of chefs. After doing the needful I decided to make beef tongue empanadas and see how it tasted.

Beef empanadas!!!

 I started off by cooking the cow tongue, and God, it took hours to cook! While the tongue was cooking, I was thinking what to serve with the empanadas. I thought of serving pepper foam. I made that with pepper purée, a bit of gelatine and isi whipper. Since empanadas are mostly Argentinean, I thought of giving  chimichuri as well and instead of putting the boiled eggs inside, I'd put them on the plate. I then made the the dough with flour, melted butter, some cold water and salt. The tongue was ready and it was time to finish the filling with spices and all the other stuff. I added some olives, tomatoes and onions, garlic, some seasonings, cumin, paprika, and oregano. I diced up the tongue and mixed it the other mixture, and my filling was ready. 

It was time to make the empanadas. I rolled out the dough and made discs and filled half of it and closed it to look like a crescent moon. I decided to fry them rather then bake them. I fried 2 pieces and cut them in half; platted 3 of the 4 pieces and followed by the red pepper foam and the chimichuri followed by some fragments of hard boiled yolk. The dish tasted and looked good. I wasn't very happy with the outcome of the dish as I wanted it to be a little more classy and sophisticated but, I was content with what I had made. My chef who was doing the tasting of our dishes was also happy and a bit surprised seeing what was presented in the plate. I personally was a little bit disappointed with the plating but the rest was good.

Okay guys, enough of me making your mouth water and drool. Go grab an empanada from your nearby store or get your ass off the chair, and make some!

Thanks for reading the post and I hope you keep doing it...

Ciao!!