Roti Isi Semur Abon (Pulled Veal Tongue Baguette

I have noticed that lately pulled-pork is on the trendy side in the culinary world. It looks so flavorful, tender, and juicy. They put it in sandwich, burger, nachos, buritos, or even a spoon over a bowl of warm cooked rice. You literally can eat it anyway you want and it turns your ordinary food into a food that nourish your hunger, appetite, and even your soul, and make you a better person after the 1st bite. 

There is one problem tho, I can't eat pulled-pork, or any other dish made out of pork. I had to be creative and find other solution to feed my craving, and so I did. I got the texture of that stringy juicy pulled pork by slow-cooking a veal tongue, and to give it a hickory smoke taste, I used few Indonesian spices like cloves and cinnamon that are commonly used to bbq meat. 

Let's get started!

Ingredients: 

1 veal tongue (no need to peel it yet)

1 cm of fresh galangal

2 daun Salam (Indonesian bayleaf)

1 lemongrass

1/2 tsp of red peppercorn 

3 cloves

salt and pepper

1. Put tongue and the rest of the ingredients into a high pressure cooker, add enough water to cover,
2. Close the lid and bring up to cook (my pressure cooker hisses to sign that it's done), so cook until your pressure cooker barks, howl, or whatever sound it makes when it's done, 
3. Carefully release the pressure, pick the tongue out and gently remove the thick skin,
4. Shred the tongue and put it in a bowl, set aside.

Meanwhile you are waiting for the tongue to cook, prepare the sauce.

Ingredients:

4 shallots,

3 garlic cloves,

4 candlenuts, 

1 tsp of white pepper powder

salt to taste (I used 1 tsp)

1/4 tsp nutmeg powder

1/4 tsp of cinnamon powder

1 cup of mushroom, thinly sliced

5 to 6 tbsp ketjap manis

2 tbsp tomato ketchup

1 tbsp margarine or oil

Toppings:

Tomato, thinly sliced

Avocado, thinly sliced

Lettuce

French baguette bread

1. Using mortar pestle (food processor will do), crush shallots, garlic, candlenuts, white pepper powder and salt into smooth paste,
2. Sautée the paste with oil and margarine until fragrant, add nutmeg and cinnamon powder, 
3. Add mushroom, ketjap manis and tomato ketchup, 
4. Continue cooking until the sauce thickens.

Ensembling the sandwich:

1. Mix the sauce with the shredded tongue gently until it is perfectly blended,
2. Cut the baguette bread into two equal length, then cut the middle, 
3. Lay a lettuce on one side of the bread, 
4. Slab a genereous portion of the shredded tongue mixture and top it with avocado and tomatoe slices,
5. Et voila, a true hunk of a sandwich, satisfaction guaranteed!

PS: the baguette I used was only about 40 cm long, not super long one. This batch made about 6 portions of 20 cm sandwich.