How to cook beef heart?

[mattlorig]

The other day I bought about 6 lbs of sliced beef heart (I was tired of the old pork, chicken, beef routine). But, I'm not sure what the best method of cooking beef heart is?

My method of choice for cooking almost all meat is to braise it, because it's pretty tough to screw something up by braising it, and it requires a minimal effort on my part. But, I know that braising works best for fatty pieces of meat on the bone. The beef heart lacks both fat (it's extremely lean) and bone (obviously). Do you think braising it would be OK? If not, can you suggest any other method of cooking it?

PS I've also seen cow tongue at the supermarket. Has anybody had any experience cooking tongue? I've heard that they know how to cook a mean "lengua" in Mexico. Can anybody confirm this?

[SirChef09]

My favorite way to cook beef heart would be in a stew of some sort. I tried and true recipe that I have used before is thus:



1 medium beef heart, rinsed and cubed
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
1 cup water
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt

1. Dredge the beef heart in flour until coated. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat.
2. Fry the pieces of heart until browned. Stir in onions and water. Season with salt and seasoning salt.
3. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 2 to 3 hours, or until the meat is very tender. Serve over noodles or mashed potatoes.

[Marge Gunaw]

Originally Posted by mattlorig

The other day I bought about 6 lbs of sliced beef heart (I was tired of the old pork, chicken, beef routine). But, I'm not sure what the best method of cooking beef heart is?......................
If not, can you suggest any other method of cooking it?

PS I've also seen cow tongue at the supermarket. Has anybody had any experience cooking tongue? I've heard that they know how to cook a mean "lengua" in Mexico. Can anybody confirm this?

I used to stir fry the beef heart. Here is the recipe:

250 gr Beef Heart -> slice thinly (0.5 x 1 x 5 cm)
5 Golden shallot - peeled and slice
2 Garlic (unpeeled) - smashed -> open the skin. (This kind of method will keep the garlic juice inside.
2 stalks small Spring Onion -> julienne
1 Red Chilli -> Thinly slice diagonally

Marinate:
1 tsp Worchestershire Sauce/ L&P Sauce
1 tsp Tabasco
1 tsp Chicken Stock/ Concentrte Liquid
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs sweet thick soy sauce
2 tbs Maggie Sauce
1 tsp ground whitepepper
1 keffir lime leave (tear off)

Other ingredients:
Salt and Pepper as you like
1 tsp Maggie Sauce
1 tbs Thick Sweet Soy Sauce
2 stalks of Cilantro
2 tbs Margarine or 3 tbs basic Olive Oil

Method:
a. Wash the beef heart through running water, dry with damp cloth. Slice beef thinly (1/2 cm thin) and 1 x 3 cm size.

b. Mix together all marinate ingredients in a bowl and put the beef heart in. Cover and marinade in refrigerator for about 10 - 15 minutes. Then take it out and drain. Set aside the marinate sauce.

c. Heat (thick bottom) pan, add in the margarine or olive oil with medium heat. When the margarine has melted, put in the shallot and garlic, stir fry until the fragrance come out and the shallot has slightly transparent. Turn the heat into high. Sprinkle the Maggie Sauce and Soy Sauce until it is caramelized then put in the beef heart and the sliced chilies. Simmer for about 2 - 3 minutes (or until beef heart cooked through), add in the marinate sauce left over. Cook for another 2 minutes. Add in the Salt and pepper. Just before you turn the heat off, add in the spring onion. Ready.

d. Arrange in a Plate and sprinkle with Cilantro leaves.

Happy Cooking

[DC Sunshine]

Braising the heart would work well, or also the stir-fry that Marge has suggested. Either very short cooking or very long. With the braising you'd prob need to add a fat source - lardons for example, and plenty of liquid. I imagine it would be a bit like kangaroo - that's very lean too. I do that with a marinade and make very rare steaks - delicious, but if you leave it too long without using a braising method - it goes tough as old boots!

Obviously you'd have to remove arteries etc, but apparently if tastes like super beefy beef

Could try mincing it with some fatty pork mince for meatballs perhaps?

As for tongue, have only had it corned and pressed, served cold sliced as a luncheon meat. Tastes good.

[Coregonus]

Support stew option. Heart has pretty strong flavor and best in rich spicy stew w/root veggies - goulash-style. Also good grilled/broiled (thinly sliced) under white wine/creme fraiche sauce w/pickles. Though, isn't dietary option (don't care myself)

Tongue is pretty big in Central Europe, can't tell about Mexico. Big beef tongue traditionally simmered w/pickling spices for hours. Start it in cold unsalted water and peel as soon as can handle, while still hot. Serving makes difference: marinated, in aspic, w/horseradish, w/chili-like sauce, on roll etc.

C

[nowIamone]

It's been years since I've cooked a beef heart, but every fall I cook Moose heart.........and it's been said that I cook the best Moose heart in this stretch of the tundra!

I drop the heart in a plastic bag with bay leaves, peppercorns, slice of onion, sliced garlic cloves, several glugs of a dry red wine and then refrigerate for 24-48 hours.

Drain and cut into strips the size of your finger. Flour, dip in a mixture of beaten egg and roll in again in seasoned flour. Fry on med high heat in a mix of olive oil and butter, until brown on outside. Remove and lay across the bottom of baking dish.
Quickly Saute red and green peppers, slices of onion and mushrooms and garlic, lay on top of the heart slices.
Heat some marinara sauce with red wine, and pour over the heart and pepper mixture, cover with foil and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until hot through. Don't bake to long or heart will toughen.

Basically, bread it and cook it like a chicken fried steak, then the marinara sauce helps to finish the cooking and tenderize.

[mattlorig]

Thanks for all of the replies. Clearly, there's a lot more beef-heart-cooking-experience on this forum than I would have imagined!

[Marge Gunaw]

Originally Posted by mattlorig

................................
PS I've also seen cow tongue at the supermarket. Has anybody had any experience cooking tongue? I've heard that they know how to cook a mean "lengua" in Mexico. Can anybody confirm this?

I don't know about Mexican "lengua", but I do have Indonesia Tounge Recipe and it is yummy. This is an Ancient Indonesian Royal Family favorite recipe that adopted from Dutch Cuisine. It is called "Selat Solo". Here is the recipe that I adopted and add a bit of my version to enhance the modern taste:

Ingredients:
1 Medium Size Tounge
2 red chilies
2 Salam leaves (you can substitute with Bay leaves)

2 tbs multipurpose flour
1 onion (about 50 gr) - chopped
2 cloves of garlic (smashed unpeeled)
3 tbs thick sweet soy sauce
1 tbs Maggie Sauce
1 tbs Lea & Perrins (Worchestershire)
1 tbs granulated sugar

1 tbs ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground whitepepper
1 tbs freshly smashed balck pepper
2 stalks of celery (flat leaves)

1 stalk of spring onion
2 tbs margarine/ olive oil
salt to taste
250 ml warm water
some more water

Garnish:
- baked mashed potato & cheese (mixed mashed potato with grated cheddar cheese - mould with spoon - put in greased baking sheet - bake for about 5 minutes or until golden in color)
- Carrot - buttonoire slice
- green bean or asparagus will do
- iceberg lettuce
- freshly coarse ground black pepper

Additional Sauce:
- Aioli (Mayonaise + anchovies (optional) + garlic)
- Cooked French Mustard (Pls see recipe below)

Method:
1. Boil tounge in water until it is tender. During the boiling, you can add the burnt whole red chillies (put the chili in the fire and let it burnt), salam/ bay elaves and salt to taste.

2. When the tounge is tender, turn off the heat and remove the tounge. Clean the outer skin and then slice it about 1 cm thick. Set aside.

3. Heat a (thick bottom) pan, add in the margarine/ oil. When it is hot, add in oinion and garlic, stir fry until it is fragrance, add in the celery stalks. Simmer for about 1 minute, then sprinkle the Maggie Sauce, L&P Sauce, Soy Sauce into the pan until it is caramelized, then add in the flour. (Notes: the caramels should be in good stage, do not burnt) When the flour cooked through, add in the water a little by a little and continue stirring until all water are disolved.

4. When all those stage done, add in: sugar, nutmeg, ground white pepper, smashed black pepper, keep on stirring until the the frangrance come out, then add in the cooked slice tounge and spring onion.

5. Add some more water if you like (the liquid consistency should be thick but it depends of what you prefer. It can be less thick sauce too). Bring to boil until the liquid a bit reduced. Ready.

Cooked Mustard:
a. 50 gr of carrot - small cubed - sprinkle with salt and mix them well. Set aside for 0.5 hour, clean them up under running water, drain, add 1 tbs sugar.
b. 100 gr cucumber/ kiyuri - deseeded - cubed - sprinkle with salt (not too much as cucumber will also absorb the salt into its flesh), set aside for about 15 minutes, clean them under running water, drain, add 1 tbs sugar.
c. 30 gr chopped onion

Notes: Salt is the agent to make the vegetable flesh more tender

d. Heat (medium) a pan, add in 1 tbs margarine/ olive oil, cook the onion until fragrance but not soft, put the mustad in, cook through, add in 5 tbs water, stir until all water disolved, add in a. and b. (above). Additional Salt & Sugar & Ground White Pepper to taste. Cook for about 5 more minutes. Ready.

Garnish:
Arrange in an oval serving plate
- Iceberg - crushed, put it as a base of serving plate.
- Put the cooked tounge and its sauce in the middle of the plate.
- Add in and arrange the baked mashed potato around the tounge
- Arrange the carrot and Greenbean/ asparagus amongst the mashed potato.
- Arrange the aioli in longest one site and cooked mustard in the other side.

Ready to serve.

Enjoy your cooking