Friday, April 20, 2007

THE INSIDER - A MATTER OF DISCRETION

The Filipinos are not squeamish eating the "menudencia" or "lamang-loob", what the Afro-American calls "offal" (the waste part of an animal for food). A home slaughtered pig, is the "piece de resistance" for a huge gathering or fiesta. Liver sauce is a must for the "lechon" or roasted pig in a poke. The other parts, like the intestines are hosed down and gingerly inverted, scrubbed with papaya leaves and blanched in salted water. These are used for casing homemade "longoniza" or sausages, or for "dinuguan", a recipe that you will encounter here. Today you can find almost every Asian markets sells them and that you can buy it cleaned, sometimes precooked, so that your job is the final cooking.

I still won't eat anything that I have not prepared in the case of what I call "The Insiders". In some cases, I substitute the meat ingredients to my liking.

TRIPE

This "insider" is the muscular lining of the beef stomach. There are 4 kinds, all of which are used at least in one or two Filipino classic recipes. There is the "fat " of the belly, then there are three different sections of the honeycomb tripe which comes from the second stomach of the cow.---the extremity of the the belly, which is only partially honeycomb.
The honeycomb is more expensive than the others. In Italy, I was fascinated with the street vendors in the city and beaches that peddled boiled tripe, cut in big square pieces, eaten by the consumers with a twist of lemon wedges. Honestly, I did not have the nerve to try them. I had them at home from my own kitchen...it was even bought at the Navy Commissary.

"PAMPLINA" HONEYCOMB TRIPE STEW

In the different region of Spain, "callos" has been prepared similarly with variations. My mother cooked this dish on special occasions and as I remember it was eaten with "puto Binang", a very light, yellowish in color steamed rice cakes. This dish is eaten not as main course, but somewhere between meals because steamed rice is not part of it. I am guessing that the original dish came from Pamoploma, Spain, I am also sure that there has been some alteration somewhere. I had encountered and tasted a few, one is called "Callos Madrillena." but not as good as how my mother prepared it. Of course the recipe below was only adapted from her recipe ...I made a few twists here and there.

Wash the tripe thoroughly in cold water, blanch in a boiling water for 5 minutes, Drain and transfer to a big pot to hold. (If you have a pressure cooker, cook them for half an hour).

Two pieces of honeycomb tripe, about 3 lbs
1 onion, quartered
2 bay laves

If you are cooking in a big pot, skim the foam from the top of the boiling broth and simmer until the tripe is fork-tender. Remove from broth, let it cool and slice into bite size pieces. Strain the broth and set aside.

In a wok or skillet, saute:

4 rashers of bacon cut into small pieces and render fat.
(do not crisp-fry the bacon)

Add:

3 minced garlic cloves
1 diced onion
1 1-inch fresh ginger, minced
1 sweet red pepper, seeded and diced

Add and saute for 5 minute:

The sliced tripe
2 chorizo de Bilbao or pepperoni, sliced 1/8 inch

Transfer to the original pot with strained broth.

Add:
2 large potatoes, peeled and cut 1/2 cubes
1 8-o. canned chick peas(garbanzo beans) with the juice
1 8-oz. canned navy beans with juice.

Simmer until potatoes are done.

Stir in:

1 cup of cream or 1 can of evaporated milk

Correct seasoning with fish sauce and ground black pepper.

Served with grated Parmesan cheese on top.


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KARE=KARENG GOTO - TRIPE IN PEANUT SAUCE

With this recipe try to get at least two kinds of honeycomb so as to give you different textures.

Trim out the fat, wash and parboil for 5 minutes in water to cover, discard the water and wash again and drain. Cool.


Cut into 1x2 inches squares

3 lbs. honeycomb tripe

Have ready a heavy pot with lid
Add to enough water to cover:

1 beef bouillon cube
1 quartered onion
3 garlic cloves garlic
1 celery stalk
1 bay leaf

Bring to a boil and add tripe and simmer for 1 hour to one and one half hour until the tripe is fork tender. This depends how old the owner of the tripe was.. Drain and set aside, Strain the broth, discard the vegetables seasoning.

Pressure Cookers will cook the tripe fork-tender in 30 minutes

Meanwhile prepare the sauce;

Toast;

1/2 cup rice flour and set aside

In the same pot where you coked the tripe saute:

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 minced garlic
1 diced onion

Add the saved broth.

Stir in;
2 canned coconut milk
2 Chinese eggplants, sliced 2-inches thick
1 lb. whole green beans or "sitaw"
1 lb. bok-choy, cut in 2 inches length
2 cans banana blossoms or frozen artichoke hearts
1 teaspoon annato or achuete
1 teaspoon azzafran blossoms("kasuha")


Simmer until vegetable are cook.

In a bowl put the toasted rice flour
1 cup peanut butter... I like the smooth type but you can use the other type.
Add some broth and stir before putting it to the tripe and vegetable mixture. Gently stir the stew, may add some more "extra" broth or water if needed.

* If you notice there is no salt added in the recipe...! It is suppose to be a bit bland but with the flavor of toasted rice and peanut butter.

This is served with "guisadong bagoong."


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DINUGUAN - BLOOD STEW


In a covered pot over medium heat, bring to boil:

6 cups of water
2 pounds boneless picnic or shoulder cut with skin pork
2 pounds chicken thighs
salt and pepper to taste

On the first boil, scoop the foam, discard and lower the heat
Continue until the meat is tender. Cool and cut into bite size cubes.
De-bone the chicken and cut the same size as the pork. Save he broth.

In a skillet or wok, saute until translucent;

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 minced garlic cloves

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