Let the calf tongue soak in lightly salted water
for 24 hours. Rinse and then simmer for 2 to 3
hours, depending on the weight, in a soup kettle
with the shank, water, garlic, carrot, celery, leek,
onion, bay leaf, thyme and crushed
peppercorns.
Also add the pieces of veal blanquette.
Regularly check the cooking. It is possible that
the tongue needs a longer cooking time. In that
case, remove the blanquette from the broth and
keep it covered for further use. Blanch the
sliced mushrooms in the stock at the end of the
cooking time. Remove them after a few minutes
and save separately.
Strain the stock. Remove the skin from the
tongue and cut the meat into cubes.
Make the sauce: shred scallops and fry them in
plenty of butter. Mix with a few tablespoons of
flour and stir it for a while. Now add the hot
stock with small amounts at the same time and
keep stirring until a well-bound sauce.
flour
butter
shallot
tomato paste
chervil
eggs
gherkins
nutmeg
onion
laurel
thyme
mushrooms
pepper balls
garlic
calf blanquette
calf tongue
veal shank
carrot
celery
leeks
Tête de veaux is a typical Limburg regional
dish. It is usually eaten on special
occasions such as during the carnival and
the fairs. Originally, people used to use a
full calf's head with the tongue.
Mix the sauce with the desired amount of
tomato paste and season with pepper, salt and
nutmeg. Let boil for a while and now do theveal
blanquette, cubes of sole and mushrooms in the
sauce. You can also stir a few drops of Madeira
or dry sherry through the sauce.
Serve hot at the table in a dish finished with
hard boiled eggs, sliced gherkins and some tufts
of chervil.
There is also a cold preparation of tête de
veaux, which is cut and packaged in the bread
section of probably every supermarket in the
country, or at your butcher's.
You can easily make that yourself. Depending
on how much you want to make, you can put
ten gelatine sheets in cold water. Dissolve it in
the warm preparation of the tête de veaux, stir
well and fill containers with it. You put them in
the refrigerator to stiffen.
head of veal
tête de veau