MickeyB

" It seems a very indian dish in terms of the ingredients and the cooking methods, especially with all those onions." Joel, I confess. It is using some very Indian ingredients and method. But you may notice some basic classic curry ingredients are missing, which I thought resulted in a taste that is very suitable to Tripe and lungs. The resultant taste I got was much darker and heavier than a classic curry due to the higher proportion of cumin to corriander seeds, and to the large ammount of garlic and lack of Haldi (Turmeric). Anyway, I will not apologize for borrowing from the wonderful Indian kitchen. I think they have perfected the art of cooking meat with a lot of tasty gravy. I hope you try it, and am curious to get your verdict. On reading the recipe again I found two omisions: 1. There are five items to grind together into a smooth paste, not four. 2. I forgot to say to add the can of chopped tomatos together with the chopped fresh ones. MickeyB

Joel, I have a couple of friends who, like myself, love tucking in to a bowl of a spicy meat dish with lots of thickish sauce, mopping it up with a fresh loaf of bread. So about once or twice a month I prepare such a dish. The three of us are very fond of innards of all kinds, so quite often I make the dish with Honeycomb Beef Tripe, Beef Lung, and Chicken Gizzards (Stomach), all mixed together. We live in Israel, where it is quite popular to eat very spicy (fiery hot) food. The following recipe will produce a very spicy and very hot saucy dish, which may not suit a lot of people, but of course it may be toned down. Here it is: 700 grams of honeycomb beef tripe - Par cooked and bleached - cut into bite size 300 - 400 grams of beef lung - major air pipes removed - Par boiled 20 minutes and thoroughly washed.- cut into bite size 400 grams of chicken gizards - thoroughly washed and cut in two. 12 -15 cloves of garlic 1 large onion roughly chopped 50 grams of fresh ginger roughly chopped 6 large very hot fresh peppers (green and red mixed) roughly chopped - I don't know if chillies is the right name, in Israel we get a local variety which is 4-8 inches long and extremely hot. The main point is the fresh flavor and very hot. Roots of a whole bunch of fresh green Corriander - chopped. Grind the previous four items together into a smooth paste - add juice of one fresh green lime. 1 kg of onions finely chopped. 2 ripe fresh tomatos finely chopped. 1 can of chopped tomatos 3 Tbs of tomato puree Whole Spices: 4 inch cinnamon bark 4 cloves 4 plump green cardamom pods - split open Freshly ground spices: 2 Tbs corriander seeds 2 Tbs Cumin seeds 1 tsp black pepper corns 1 tsp Caraway seeds 2-4 Allspice corns 6-8 dry red bird eye chilley peppers 8 - 10 seeds of Fenugreek (optional) Herbs: 2-4 Bay leaves 10-20 fresh curry leaves a whole bunch of fresh Corriander - with stalks - chopped Thickening: 2 Tbs of white Sesame seeds or Cashew nuts or Pistachio nuts - Ground to smooth paste with a little oil Method: Fry finely chopped onions in large stewing pot with plenty of vegetable oil on medium heat till very light golden color Add about 3/4 of the garlic, onion, chilli and ginger paste, stirring frequently. After 5 minutes, add whole spices. After 2-3 minutes lower the heat, add ground spices, stir well, add oil if too dry. After 5 minutes (stirring), raise heat to medium, add tomato puree, fresh chopped tomatos, Bay leaves and curry leaves. Stir frequently. After 5 minutes, lower heat. After another 5 minutes slowly add 4 cups of boling water or Beef stock, stir well. When sauce returns to slow rolling boil, add all meats, stir well, raise heat to high, until return to slow boli, then reduce heat to low. Add salt to taste, juice of 1 fresh green lime, 1/2 - 1 Tbs sugar, and some red chilli powder to prefferd heat. Cover well, leave to cook very slowly on very low heat for 1.5 hours. In a small frying pan, heat some oil, (2-3 Tbs). when hot, add remainder of Onion,Garlic,chilly paste, stir slowly on low heat. After 5 minutes, add ground seeds or nuts, stirring continuously. After 2 minutes, add very slowly a cup of water or stock, sirring untill thickens and small oil droplets form on top. Add contents of frying pan to stewing pot, stir well, cover and let simmer for another 15 -30 minutes, checking if the meats are sufficiently soft. Add chopped Corriander, check seasoning, add salt, sugar and lime juice to taste. Serve with a fresh loaf of bread in deep bowls with plenty of gravy. Enjoy. MickeyB

Joel,

This is one possible way. Another, would be to add half a cup of stock before the rice ( after the oil, and maybe some Shouxing cooking wine and some very roughly chopped onion),let it reduce to 1/8th of a cup, then add the rice etc. The small amount of liquid should not harm the rice. Rather it would help rejuvenate it after being in the fridge a day or two, and as you said help warm it without burning. For best results, a special high power gas ring should be used, one that has a 100 gram/min supply valve. I like also to add some stock to the egg mixture to give it flavour and more volume and a more fluffy texture. I usually add a few drops of sesame oil for flavour. Another way my preparation differs from your's, is that I usually fry the egg mixture in the wok on a high flame (before the rice), chop it up with the ladel in the wok while it starts to settle, and remove it to a plate. Then I do the stuff with the stock and rice, stir fry the rice well on a high flame, while adding Soy, sesame oil and salt & pepper, throw the cooked egg back in, stir fry for a few more seconds and serve.

When I need to make a large quantity of ragu, I prefer to solve the evaporation problem differently, and I suspect my method has the advantage of retaining more of the flavours. In short, when it's time for evaporation, (i.e. everything is in and cooking nicely), I pass the half ready ragu through a fine sieve covered with a piece of cloth, pour a litle sauce back into the ragu and return it to the slow flame to continue coocking. The rest of the sauce I reduce to a third or quarter on a high flame, then return it to the ragu for a final short, slow cooking.