Nora's Callos

This is one of my Mom's signature dishes, and I still remember how she used to spend many hours cleaning the tripe, and cooking it and the beef leg (pata ng baka) until they were fork-tender. Of course, now you can buy well-cleaned tripe in supermarkets. Beef leg is a bit harder to find. Callos is usually served at large gatherings, because it takes such a long time to cook, making it worthwhile to make a big batch for a large crowd. I recently cooked this dish and sent it to my son in New York (his Ate (big sister), hubby and daughter were visiting from Boston), and they devoured it (I think mostly him).

Ingredients:

2 pounds tripe, well-cleaned and sliced into cubes

1 beef leg (ask your butcher to chop it into pieces, so they will fit in the pot)

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 whole head garlic, peeled and minced

2 medium onions, chopped

1 beef bouillon cube

3 Spanish chorizos, cubed

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small can tomato paste

1 big can tomato sauce

½ cup each garbanzos (chickpeas), carrots and potatoes (cubed)

1 large red bell pepper, cubed

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon sugar (optional)

Dash of Worcestershire sauce

Dash of Sriracha (chili sauce) (optional)

Directions:

Using a pressure cooker, cook the beef leg pieces and tripe separately in water until tender—the length of time required for cooking will depend on the volume of the meat and the size of your pressure cooker (you may need to do it in several batches, but this still reduces the cooking time substantially, compared to just boiling the meats in a large pot on the stove top).

Remove the meats from the cooker using a slotted spoon; reserve the broth. Debone the beef leg and slice into cubes; discard the bones. Drain the tripe and set aside; discard the broth.

In a large, heavy-bottomed casserole, heat the canola oil, and sauté the garlic until golden (don’t burn it); add the onion and cook, stirring, until soft and starting to caramelize, about 5 minutes. Add the chorizo slices and beef  bouillon; stir for 2 minutes. Add the tripe and beef leg pieces, and stir for another minute. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in the olive oil.

Simmer for 3 minutes, then add the tomato paste and tomato sauce and stir well until well-combined. Add 2 cups of the tripe broth (or less/more, depending on desired consistency of the sauce), bell peppers, garbanzos, potatoes, carrots, bay leaf, and sugar (if using). Cook until the garbanzos, potatoes and carrots are tender. Season with salt, pepper, and a dash of Worcestershire sauce, and Sriracha chili sauce, if using. Serves 6 to 8.

Note:  The sauce should be sufficiently thickened by the ligaments in the beef leg. In case the beef leg you bought doesn’t do the job, you could thicken the sauce with a roux (if that’s too much work for you, just add, at the end of cooking, a teaspoon of cornstarch diluted well in 2 teaspoons of water). I also add a dash of Sriracha (chili sauce) at the end to add a bit of kick to the dish.