Callos | Beef tripe stew

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to a dish to die for – Madrid-style beef tripe stew. I’m not joking: I’ve seen people fighting for the last plate of this incredible stew. Be aware – you need to have a taste for gelatinous types of food, as this dish is all about that. As you will have gathered by now, in Spain turning the ugly parts of the animal into something beautiful. The hardest part will be shopping for the ingredients; the preparation itself is very simple.

 INGREDIENTS

• 0.5 kg beef tripe (try ethnic butchers)

• 2 kg cow’s trotters, cut in discs

• 150 g panceta curada (salted, smoked and air dried pork belly)

• 1 salted jamon bone or 100 g jamón serrano

• 4 black peppercorns

• 1 clove

• 2 bay leaves

• 50 ml olive oil

• 3 garlic cloves, peeled but left whole

• 1 dried chilli, crumbled

• 1 onion, finely chopped

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1 tablespoon sweet paprika

• 5 sprigs of thyme, leaves picked

• 1 tomato, finely chopped

• 1 “morcilla de cebolla” onion black pudding

• 1 smoked chorizo sausage

• 1 tbsp flour

• 500g chickpeas

Preparation

1. Most of the tripe you find today will have been cleaned, blanched and vacuum packed. If you do buy it fresh, discard any ugly bits attached to the tripe bag, scrub them with coarse sea salt between your hands and then boil in a large pan with a glass of cheap white vinegar for 10 minutes with the salted ham bone to loose the bitternes and the trotters to clean the impurities. Drain and then chop the tripe into 2-cm squares.
   

2. Place the tripe pieces in a large, wide pot again with the trotters, ham bone |(or serrano ham piece), the chickpeas and bay leaves and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer gently (it will take about 3 hours for all the meats to be cooked and soft).
   

3. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a separate pan and gently fry the garlic cloves for 1 minute. Add the onion and cook for about 15 minutes, or until translucent but not browned. Add the dried chilli, peppercorns, clove, ground cumin, paprika, thyme leaves and stir through before adding the chopped tomato. Reduce down for about 5 minutes.
   

4. After the tripe has been simmering for 1 hour add the morcilla, chorizo and the onion, garlic, spices and tomato mixture. Let it all simmer together for about 2 more hours. Remove the panceta, morcilla, chorizo and trotter from the pan and chop into rough chunks, taking care not to burn your fingers. Return the chopped pieces to the pan and bring back to the boil. Cook for 15 minutes and then serve.
   
   Note
   This dish tastes even better the day after you have cooked it, as the flavours keep developing within the stew. I always make this in large quantities so I can still eat it 4 days later (because of the fat and gelatine it will keep for a few days).