Persian Lamb Tongue Tacos

Happy Halloween Everyone! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays/days/whatever you want to call it. I love the atmosphere in the weeks building up to it. It’s such a great time of year.

Halloween usually means something weird or scary, remember the “haunted” classrooms back in the day where the lights would be off and cold pasta would magically manifest into brains? With that lovely memory in mind, I decided to do a “Weird Eats” themed post for Halloween.

Lamb Tongue. Specifically Lamb Tongue Tacos. Persian Style.

In Iranian/Persian Cuisine, Lamb Tongue is typically a part of a larger dish called Kaleh Pahcheh, which translates to Head & Hooves. This is an Iranian/Persian delicacy, especially in the winter. In Iran if you can find a good Kaleh Pahcheh place you have to get their super early like 3AM or right before dawn to get some. Iranians/Persians love this dish. Not all of them, many Iranian Americans that are my age are grossed out by it. But I love it.

But now, a childhood Halloween memory and my first experience with Lamb Head.

Halloween for me was always a fun time of year, even if we Iranian Americans didn’t have the slightest clue how to properly “do” Halloween back in the 90’s. First off, we basically had one Halloween costume every year. Dracula. And by Dracula I mean we had his cape/cloak/whatever and the fake plastic teeth. Dracula later catalyzed into Batman because all you need is a Batman mask and bingo bango you got a new costume. No fancy costumes, one year I think I did fake blood and I regretted it. Crappy costumes rule. Let’s not even discuss our Jack-O-Lanterns, they were a hot mess! Either way, as a kid, all you care about is the candy loot anyways. Forget costume fashion and pumpkin carving, I WANTED REESE’S!

For Trick or Treating, we would round up and walk around other neighborhoods, I lived on a busy street so no real safe trick or treating for us at my home base. By age 10-11, I was told Halloween is for kids, and now that I was entering middle school, trick or treating would no longer be an option. You can imagine my sadness. Candy dreams crushed. Iranian parents folks, they do not care about your silly childhood proclivities for candy and chocolate.

I still managed to sneak it in a few more times as I was “at” friends houses. But it was never the same. So now as an adult, I LOVE when I get trick or treaters and doling out fist fulls of candy.

Now to the Lamb Head.

So traditionally they take the whole lamb head, tongues, and the hooves and boil them in a pot with lemon and cinnamon. As you cook it down, the tender meat falls off and you have a delicious pot of horrors hahahhaah. Literally I remember walking in my grandmothers kitchen as a kid, I always opened the pots, so one fateful night I opened one of the pots and BLAM! LAMB HEAD staring me right in the face. I had determined that Mary’s little lamb, ended up in my Maman Joon’s kitchen pot.

I still can’t face preparing the whole shabang of the head and the eyeballs and the brain. BUT! I do love lamb tongue, and I can stomach the preparation.

Lamb tongues, or Zaboon in Farsi, are high in fat, vitamin B, and protein. So you really only need one or two to be full. But I can never eat just one or two, they are so good! In my opinion they are far superior to Beef Tongue, which is not as flavorful and has an unappetizing consistency.

Lamb tongue is not for everyone, I made this into a pseudo Persian Lamb Tongue Taco using lavash bread. I hope you enjoy and Happy Halloween!

Recipe for Persian Lamb Tongue Tacos

Ingredients

1 Package of Lamb Tongues (I went to my Iranian Butcher to get these, you’ll have to find a butcher for these)

1 Onion Diced

1 Head of Garlic Cloves Crushed

1 Tbsp. Butter

1 Tbsp. Cumin

1 Tsp. Tumeric

1 Tsp. Salt

1 Tsp. Pepper

3 Tbsp. Lemon Juice

2 Cups Chicken Broth

Lavash Bread

Method

First here is what they look like, I was told by my Editor-In-Chief that people will be grossed out. But I think there is a kind of Weird Eats curiosity to the whole thing. Since I am the Boss, I have final say. So I win.

Throw your diced onions, garlic, and butter into a pot. Brown them up then add your tongues. Brown them slightly on all sides. Then add your chicken broth, spices, and lemon juice. Reduce your eat and cook on a low eat for  2 to 3 hours.

It should look this when it’s done.

Once they are cooked, (I kept the broth/sauce as a stew base for other Iranian stews) take our tongues out of the broth. Traditionally you serve the tongues with the broth. People then eat it like a soup or dip their bread in the broth, but that might not be for the uninitiated.

With your tongues, you need to peel the outer layer of skin off. This is typically the difficult part for the squeamish. Make a cut along the length of the middle of the tongue. Using your hands peel back the skin, carefully peel all the skin off. And you are ready to go.

It should look like this when you are finished peeling. I broke it up and shredded it for the picture at the top. Serve with some warm flat bread and chow down. You’ll probably be chowing alone unless you magically find some first generation Iranian Americans or some foodies.

Enjoy!

*Keep the remaining broth/juice that you make the lamb in. If you add some dried lime to it you have the perfect base for any Persian Khoresht.

 

 

 Happy Halloween! BE SAFE!