Tongue moilee is one of those East Indian dishes that disappears off the table before you’ve even sat down properly to eat it. This tangy, masala-forward curry built on browned tongue, a generous pile of onions, ginger, garlic and green chillies, and just enough vinegar to keep it sharp is an offal dish, which means it’s not for everyone, but for the people who grew up eating it, nothing else quite tastes as delicious.
We usually make this in the pressure cooker to save time, but tongue moilee started life on the stovetop, long before pressure cookers were a fixture in East Indian kitchens, or long before pressure cookers even existed. So if you don’t own one, or you simply prefer to let a curry take its time, this is the version for you. Same masala, same tangy bottle masala base, same bovine tongue , with just a longer, slower simmer instead of a quick blast under high pressure.
Stovetop vs. Pressure Cooker — What’s Actually Different
Nothing in the ingredient list changes between the two versions. The only real difference is time and attention. Under pressure, tongue softens in a fraction of the time. On the stovetop, you’re looking at closer to 1.5–2 hours of gentle simmering, with a bit of checking in toward the end to see if the tongue breaks apart easily with a spoon. It’s more hands-on, but the slow reduction also gives the gravy a chance to thicken and concentrate on its own, without needing to reduce it separately afterward.
If speed is what you’re after, our pressure cooker tongue moilee recipe will get you there faster. This version is for when you’ve got the afternoon, or you just don’t have a pressure cooker sitting in the cupboard.
What Is Tongue Moilee, Exactly?
“Moilee” (sometimes spelled moile) refers to a family of East Indian curries built around a browned onion-ginger-garlic-chilli and bottle masala mixture, usually finished with vinegar for tang. Duck, ox tongue, and other cuts of offal are the most traditional bases for it. This recipe uses beef or ox tongue, browned first in caramelized sugar before it goes into the pot, which is what gives the finished curry its deep colour and slightly sweet-savoury backbone.
How to Make Tongue Moilee on the Stovetop
Start by caramelizing sugar in the pot first, and then browning the tongue cubesin it on a high flame until they’re deeply colored on all sides. This takes about ten minutes, but it does double duty: it builds the base colour of the gravy and gets rid of some of the moisture in the tongue before it goes into the curry proper. Once browned, the tongue comes out and rests while the masala gets built in the same pot.
The ghee goes in the pot first. It gets added to the leftover tongue water. Then the onion rings are slow fried till they’re soft and translucent. The ginger, garlic, and green chillies follow and fry for a few minutes, then the bottle masala, garam masala, and salt get worked through until the whole pot smells like it’s ready.
Once the masala is ready, the browned tongue goes back in along with water and vinegar, and from here it’s mostly a waiting game. A long, steady simmer that reduces the gravy down significantly, until the tongue is soft enough to break apart with just the spoon. If it needs more time, cook for a bit longer. If it feels ready, taste test and turn the stove off. Then serve with rice, or apas or foogias.
Tongue Moilee Curry on the Stove Top
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Ingredients
For the Moilee Masala
- 400 grams Onions Cut in rings
- 2 Inches Ginger Cut in strips
- 5 Green Chillies Cut diagonally
- 12 Garlic Cloves or Garlic Flakes Cut in strips
To Cook the Tongue
- 750 grams Beef Tongue 1 Small Tongue
- 2 Tablespoons Ghee (Indian clarified butter)
- 2 Tablespoons Sugar
- 2 Tablespoons East Indian Bottle Masala
- 1 Litres Water
- 5 Tablespoons Vinegar
- 2 teaspoons Garam Masala
- 1 teaspoon Sea salt Add more or less salt as required.
Instructions
Brown the Tongue
- Cut the tongue into 1-inch pieces (or ask the butcher to do skin and cut it for you because it's tough to cut).
- Add sugar to a large pot and caramelize (about 2 minutes).
- Add the tongue pieces and allow them to brown for about 10 minutes on a high flame. Stir a few times so that it’s brown on all sides. (It will lose water. This is not a problem.)
- Once the tongue pieces look nice and brown, remove them in a large plate or another pot and set aside.
Cut the Green Masala
- Cut the onions into rings.
- Cut the garlic, ginger, and green chilies into strips and keep aside for later.
Make the Tongue Moilee
- Add ghee to a pot and fry the onion rings till soft and translucent (about 10 minutes.)
- Now, add the chillies, ginger, and garlic, and fry for about 5 minutes.
- Next add the salt, garam masala and masala and fry on a low for about 5 minutes till you get a good aroma.
- Now add in the water, vinegar and pieces of tongue and allow to cook on a medium-high flame for 1.5 hours stirring occasionally.
- Depending on your stove the tongue might cook faster or slower. So once an hour has passed start checking if you can break the tongue pieces with a spoon or not. If not, keep cooking. It should be done by the time you reach the 90 minute mark.
- Serve with rice, foogias, chitaps or apas.
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Nutrition (Per Serving)
Disclaimer: Nutrition Information per serving is estimated by a third party software based on the ingredients used, and is for informational purposes only. It will vary from product to product, based on methods of preparation, origin and freshness of ingredients. Please consult the package labels of the ingredients you use, or chat with your dietician for specific details.
This printable recipe card is for home use only. For more recipes head over to AbbysHearth.comWhat to Serve With Tongue Moilee
White rice or turmeric rice is the easiest pairing, but this curry really comes into its own with something to mop up the gravy — foogias, chitaps, or apas all do the job the way they’re meant to. If you’re building out a full East Indian spread, this sits comfortably alongside the other dishes in our moilee curry roundup.
More East Indian Moilee Curries
- Duck Moilee Curry
- Tongue Moilee Curry in a Pressure Cooker
- Surmai Moile
- Mom’s special Goose Moile
- Quail moile
Heya, I’m Abby! I’m a Gourmand Award-winning cookbook author and East Indian from Bombay, India. This blog is all about faith, food, and culture – from East Indian recipes to home, DIY, and spending time in the Word. Find out more about me here!