Gyutan Stew (Japanese Stew with Veal Tongue)

A person does not usually consider how much a tongue weighs, but that beef tongue weighed 3 pounds. With only two people, that’s an opportunity to make another recipe with it. As I searched for a recipe for grilled tongue, several sites noted that this meat is also served as a donbori, a curry, or a stew. I looked at Hiroko’s Lamb Stew in which a non-Japanese meat (lamb) is cooked with Japanese ingredients (sake, mirin, shoyu, miso, and kombu) and techniques (cooking the vegetables in the stew separately from the meat). I really did not want to skin the rest of the tongue before cooking it: once a tongue is cooked, the skin peels off easily.

I found three yoshoku recipes for a Japanese stew,
(see the links below the recipe)
and used them to guide me to make my own recipe.

Gyutan Stew: Japanese Stew with Veal Tongue
serves 4, generously

• half a veal tongue (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 1 leek
• 4 1/2 cups stock (mostly beef stock, plus chicken stock)
• 28-oz can of whole tomatoes
• 1/2 bottle red wine
• 12 ounce package mushrooms, sliced
• 1 large carrot, thinly sliced
• a fistful of Chinese celery, cut stalks into 4″ lengths,
  reserve chopped leaves for garnish
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 Tablespoon thyme
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 3 Tablespoons flour
• Mashed potatoes made with Yukon Golds and butter

Rub the tongue with salt, and wash it in cold water. Put the tongue in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a simmer and cook for five minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water. Meanwhile, brown onions in butter in a large pot. Add the stock, and put the tongue into the pot. Add the tomatoes, crushing them into small pieces. Add the wine, to mostly cover the meat. Add the sliced mushrooms, carrots, Chinese Celery, bay leaves, and thyme. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Remove the meat to a plate, cover and refrigerate. Gently simmer the cooking liquid to reduce by about half (it was getting late, so I didn’t let it go so long). Melt the 2 Tbs. butter and stir in the flour, and cook for a few minutes. Add a few ladles of the cooking liquid to the roux, and stir to thicken. Finally add the roux to the large pot, and stir well to avoid lumps. Add the Worcestershire sauce. Cut the meat into 3/4-inch cubes and return it to the pot. Stir until the meat is hot. Serve with mashed potatoes (or rice) and garnish with the Chinese celery leaves.

Recipes that provided inspiration:

A charmingl translated version, with pictures:

Let’s make delicious Beef Tongue Stew!: ingredients　(４people）
1 of beef tongue,　gringed vegetables(carrot、onion、celery,etc.）3-pieces of garlic,　1-celery,　1-carrot,　1-can of Domiglas sause(base sause made of many kinds of vegetables), 1-bottle of red wine ,　2,3-sheets of Bay Leaf ,　3-pieces of beef or chicken broth

A  version that looks nice:

1 beef tongue, 3 cans of demi glas sauce (you can buy this at Japanese grocery store), 1 large onion, 1 leek, 2 carrots, 2 stalks of celery, 2 cups of red wine, Bay leaf, salt and pepper

And a detailed version of hayashi raisu:

1 lb thinly sliced beef, 4 medium onions, thinly sliced, About 10-12 mushrooms, sliced, 1 medium carrot, thinly sliced, Butter or oil, 1 garlic clove, chopped, 1 cup (240ml) red wine, 2 bay leaves, 1 tsp. dried thyme, 1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce or Bulldog chuunou sauce, 1 Tbs. soy sauce, Parsley or, green peas for garnish, The sauce ingredients: 1/2 cup demi-glace or 4 cups strong beef stock, 1 16-oz or 440g can of canned tomatoes, 1 Tbs. tomato paste, 2 Tbs. butter, 3 Tbs. flour, Water

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