Tongue For Breakfast

Our farmer friend who supplies us with beef isn't really an adventurous eater. She often pulls some mysterious package of beef out of the freezer and asks us what the heck to do with it. Her favorite type of beef seems to be hamburgers. Understandably so, since her grass-fed ground beef is some of the tastiest we have ever had. However, I think she has nominated us "most likely to clean out her freezer" because our orders of beef usually come with one or two curiosities, which we always readily accept. I think there's a novelty factor to getting an unusual food item and deciding how to make it delicious.
Well this was just the challenge we were confronted with when we were asked us if we'd like a beef tongue. Yes! Beef tongue! How novel! We were genuinely excited until we realized that we were now committed to eating it, as a meal, for dinner, that night. Since Neil had brought it home, he took it upon himself to be the chef. The recipe he settled on seemed basically like corned beef, boiling meat in seasoned water. The part that seemed unusual were the instructions for peeling the tongue- until we opened the package and saw what it looked like- a big gnarly muscle encased in a spiny, white, fibrous skin. Perhaps we had made a mistake. Perhaps tongue wasn't readily available in the supermarkets for a reason. Perhaps we would be ordering pizza later instead. But, there was no turning back so into the boiling pot of water it went. 2 1/2 hours later, Neil peeled it, sliced it and made a mustard and horseradish cream sauce.
We were both uncharacteristically hesitant. Even sliced and covered with sauce it was still very, ahem, tonguey. But with no alternatives, or dog to pawn it off on, we dug in. Surprisingly, it did taste like a very tender corned beef. Neil was able to eat his but confessed to being haunted by having to peel the taste buds off his meat before eating it. Not being privy to the tongue peeling, I had a more positive experience and thought the somewhat velvety texture and subtle flavor was really enjoyable. Regardless, neither of us were brave enough for seconds. However, we still couldn't bear to waste it. Another recipe we saw had suggested tongue hash. Hopeful, I took the rest of the tongue and shredded it into benign looking little pieces for breakfast the next morning. And, let me tell you, that if you ever find yourself with an opportunity to cook beef tongue- make hash! You will not be sorry! This was the most delicious hash I have ever ingested! Tender, tasty, and less salty than the usual corned beef. Who knew beef tongue could be so yummy? I guess now we have to decide what to do with this beef heart...any suggestions?

Recipe from epicurious: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/103380
The only change to this recipe was we didn't add the anise to the water. We thought the flavor would be too strong.

Tongue Hash:

1/2 a boiled tongue per recipe above then chopped
two small potatoes boiled and chopped
2 small boiled carrots also chopped
1 medium onion chopped and lightly browned with butter in a non-stick pan
Paprika
hot sauce
salt/ pepper to taste
Dash of onion and/or garlic powder

Add boiled potato and carrot, and tongue to pan with browned onions, season everything in pan to taste. Mush the mixture down flat in pan and let brown adding butter or oil if necessary. Let brown until crusty on both sides, break up and re-brown, serve with eggs (over-easy) on top and rye toast.