Tongue Moilee (Curry) in a Pressure Cooker

Tongue Moilee is a traditional East Indian dish that is so flavourful and juicy. The slow-cooked ox or beef tongue meat just bursts with the flavor of all those spices. Served with rice, foogias, apas, or chitaps, you’ll be going back for seconds soon!

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If you love duck moilee and chicken moilee, you’re bound to love our tongue moile. If you’ve never tasted duck moile or chicken moile, you’re still bound to love the tongue moile.

Spelt moile (pronounced moy-l) or moilee (pronounced moy-lee), it’s still the same dish. Made with the infamous East Indian masala called ‘bottle masala‘, it’s an iconic dish, that is relished in most Eastya households.

You might not add this traditional dish to your Easter lunch spread or Christmas menu, but you will definitely lick your fingers anytime you eat it.

Note: We also make the tongue moilee curry on the stovetop without cooking under pressure. I’ll post that recipe soon.

What Ingredients Do You Need To Make Beef/Ox Tongue Moilee?

In order to make our tongue moile curry, first and foremost, you need the animal offal meat that is the tongue. Obviously! Then you also need salt, ghee, sugar, vinegar or wine, onions, ginger, chilies, and garlic, bottle masala, and also garam masala.

What is garam masala? It’s a spice mix made of a handful of ingredients. Our garam masala is made of cinnamon powder, ground cloves, ground pepper, nutmeg powder, and cardamom powder.

How To Make the Curry Called Tongue Moilee?

Making a soft and delicious tongue curry (East Indian style) may seem like a difficult task, but if you follow our instructions, it’s almost easy. It just takes time and practice. Remember, if you have any questions, sis, me and the other seniors are happy to answer them.

Anyway, start by cutting the tongue pieces into 1-inch cubes. We usually get this done at the butchers.

Put the cubed tongue pieces into a pressure cooker along with ghee and salt and allow to cook for two whistles. That’s about 10 to 15 minutes on our cooker. Each pressure cooker is different, so cook as long as you think it needs. Once the tongue pieces have cooked, remove them into a plate or pot and set aside.

If you’re a multi-tasker, this is where you save time. While the tongue is cooking, you can also cut the onions into rings and cut the ginger and garlic into thin strips. The green chilies you can simply slit and use.

Once the pressure cooker is empty we use it to cook the rest of the ingredients. You can use another pot, but why take the trouble of washing one more dish afterward?

Start by frying the onions with ghee in the pressure cooker that you used to cook the tongue pieces. Fry them till they’re soft and translucent. Then add the ginger, garlic, and green chilies, and fry for a minute or two.

Now, here’s an optional bit. We traditionally caramelize the sugar and cook the onions in it, but we don’t always do it. It really depends on our mood or taste on that day. You can do it if you want to, or you can skip it. There is a slight taste difference, but not too much.

Now, add the special bottle masala and a bit of water if needed, and fry gently till the masala gives out the traditional BM aroma.

Also add the garam masala now for color and flavor. (Sometimes we add it in earlier with the bottle masala.) It’s really up to you when you want to add it. It’s all cooking by andaz like our grannies did.

If you want to, you can add a bit of vinegar for tanginess and more water to cover the tongue as needed.

When making a moilee of tongue, we often replace the water with leftover homemade wine to make it more luscious. You can too if you want to. Now add the meat, cover with a lid and allow to cook for about twenty minutes to half an hour till it’s quite dry and you can see the fat has left the tongue.

Serve with the traditional onion side salad or some sliced onions and lemon. Foogias to soak up the gravy or tasty chitaps or even plain haldi rice turns it into the perfect meal.

If you want to make something a bit easier, try the tongue stir fry instead.

Cooking Tips & Tricks for Making Tongue Moile of Ox or Beef

• Cut the onions, ginger, garlic, and green chilies before you start cooking the tongue, or while it’s browning to save time.
• When you’re in a super super hurry, replace the ginger and garlic with a ginger garlic paste. The taste changes a bit, but it’s not too noticeable.
• You can use wine instead of vinegar when cooking, this adds more flavor.
• This recipe can also be made with chicken, ox tongue, or beef (we use buffalo in Maharashtra since beef was banned a few years ago).
• Always tastes best the next day!
• Serve with foogias, chitaps, or plain rice.
• Other recipes you might try are kasuri methi, chicken tope, mustard chicken, chicken soup, giblet stuffing, dry heart masala, tongue masala, and chicken gizzard.

Questions About Making Tongue Moilee Curry

Is Animal Tongue Difficult To Cook?

No, animal offal, especially animal tongue is really easy to cook. You simply need to use the right mix of spices and other ingredients to bring out the flavor.

How Is Beef/Ox Tongue Best Cooked?

Ox or beef can be cooked in a number of different way. It tastes good when it’s slow-cooked till the meat is tender, or it can be cooked in a pressure cooker with a lovely mix of spices, or it can be simply boiled and eaten plain, or it be salted and corned for days to make sour and salty slices.

How Long Can You Store Tongue Curry?

Tongue moilee curry can be kept in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for a week or in the freezer for 4 to 6 months. In our parents’ days, they used the old earthen pots called formas and would store them outside for days.

What If I Can’t Find East Indian Bottle Masala?

Depending on the country you’re in, you can buy bottle masala from any of the sellers on this list. Or you can Whatsapp Jevayla Ye at +919175191561 (No email, no website) and order using discount code Fugyeah10 for international delivery on orders above 1 kg.

Other Recipes To Try

• Beaten rice chicken
• Dad’s pineapple chicken recipe
• Easy Bombay Duck Pickle
• Salted Beef Tongue
• Walnut Fudge for Christmas