Callos a la Madrileña

As tradition built it

Serves 6 . About 4 hours

Ingredients

• 500g beef tripe (callos)
• 250g morro (muzzle)
• 1, halved pata (trotter)
• 1, sliced chorizo
• 1 morcilla
• 2 jamón bone
• 2 bay leaf
• 1 head garlic
• 2 onion
• 1 tbsp a generous measure of pimentón
• To taste guindilla chilli flakes, to taste

Method

1. Clean the tripe, morro and pata thoroughly and blanch.
2. Simmer for several hours with the chorizo, morcilla, jamón bone, bay leaf, garlic, onion and pimentón, until the tripe is genuinely tender and the sauce has reduced to a rich, gelatinous consistency.
3. Add guindilla chilli flakes to taste for heat.

Notes

No chickpeas belong in this version. They are a Galician addition; the properly madrileño preparation is tripe, offal and pork product only, thickened by its own collagen rather than by a pulse.

What a modern chef changes

Sous vide tripe and a separately clarified fat

Method

1. Pre-cook the tripe sous vide at a controlled low simmer-equivalent temperature for a long, even set before finishing the braise conventionally, giving a more consistent texture across every piece than a rolling-boil stovetop cook produces, where thinner pieces overcook long before thicker ones are done.
2. Render the chorizo and jamón fat separately and clarify it through a chinois before returning it to the sauce, for a cleaner, less muddy finish than fat rendered directly in the pot.
3. Finish with a small measure of pimentón bloomed briefly in warm oil off the heat rather than stirred in raw, the classic move that keeps the spice's aroma from turning bitter and dull.