Callos
Callos will warm up your day with its thick and delicious sauce. This stew with beef tripe, pork trotters, chickpeas, chorizo, and blood sausage is hearty and flavorful.
This recipe is inspired by the Callos a la Madrileña which is a stew that is common in Spain. We also have our version of this stew in the Philippines which was inherited from the Spanish. My husband and I enjoy this very much especially with a freshly baked baguette from the boulangerie.
Isn’t the beef tripe smelly when cooking?
The beef tripe is the one ingredient that distinguishes the dish. Unlike the pork feet which can be replaced with ox feet or veal shank. So how do you deal with the smell? Wash the tripe with salt in warm water then rinse well. Soak it in lemon juice for 10 minutes then rinse again. This will help a lot in reducing the gamey smell when you boil it.
How to make Callos
The secret for making the dish enjoyable is to make sure the tripe is tender which you will need to boil for 2 to 3 hours or you can use a pressure cooker to make it quicker. Boil it with these ingredients for flavorful tripe. Another thing is to stud the onion with cloves, it helps keeping the cloves in place and not going astray (biting down on a clove is not a good experience IMHO).
- In a big cooking pot, pour 1 liter of water or enough to cover all the ingredients.
- Add the pork feet, beef tripe, whole peppercorns, salt, garlic, bay leaves, salt, chili, and cloves studded onion.
- Boil for 2 to 3 hours until tripe is tender.
- The meat from the pork feet will tenderize sooner so you can scoop it out of the pot then separate the bones to discard.
- When the tripes are tender, remove from the pot and save the stock.
Now that the tripe and meat from the pork feet are nice and tender, it’s time to make the callos. You will need the following:
- Heat olive oil in a casserole over medium heat. When the oil is hot enough, saute onions until translucent.
- Add bacon and cook for a couple of seconds then add paprika and tomato paste. Stir to mix the ingredients.
- Add the de-boned pork feet and tripe and mix well to coat. Pour 3 to 4 cups of stock liquid. Add more if needed.
- Add the chorizo and morcilla (blood sausage) and cover-simmer for 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes, remove the chorizo and morcilla then slice when cool to touch. This will be used as toppings later.
- Tip in bell pepper and grabanzos, stir to distribute then cover. Let simmer until broth is reduced and thick. Transfer in a serving dish and enjoy while warm. Bon appetit!
Tips for Callos
- If chorizo is unavailable you can use sausages. If your living in the Philippines, you can use longganisa, the garlicky type will work best here.
- You can replace the garbanzos with pork and beans without the sauce.
- You can omit the blood sausage from the recipe if you don’t fancy it.
The secret ingredient is always LOVE
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Callos
Ingredients
For boiling the beef tripe and pork feet
- 2 pcs. pork feet (chopped)
- ½ kilo 500 grams beef tripe (sliced)
- 1 whole onion (peeled)
- 6 pcs cloves (studded in onion)
- 3 tbsp salt
- 3 pcs bay leaves
- 3 cloves garlic (skin on)
- ½ tsp whole pepper corn
- 2 pcs long chili peppers
- 1 liter water (for boiling)
For making the Callos
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 small onions (chopped)
- 1 cup bacon (sliced)
- 3 tbsp paprika
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 chorizo (sliced)
- 1 morcilla (sliced)
- ½ red bell pepper (sliced)
- 1 cup garbanzos
- ground black pepper and salt (for seasoning)
Instructions
- In a big cooking pot, pour 1 liter of water or enough to cover all the ingredients.
- Add the pork feet, beef tripe, whole peppercorns, salt, garlic, bay leaves, salt, chili, and cloves studded onion.
- Boil for 2 to 3 hours until tripe is tender.
- The meat from the pork feet will tenderize sooner so you can scoop it out of the pot then separate the bones to discard. When the tripes are tender, remove from the pot and save the stock.
- Heat olive oil in a casserole over medium heat. When the oil is hot enough, saute onions until translucent.
- Add bacon and cook for a couple of seconds then add paprika and tomato paste. Stir to mix the ingredients.
- Add the de-boned pork feet and tripe and mix well to coat. Pour 3 to 4 cups of stock liquid. Add more if needed.
- Add the chorizo and morcilla (blood sausage) and cover-simmer for 5 minutes.After 5 minutes, remove the chorizo and morcilla then slice when cool to touch. This will be used as toppings later.
- Tip in bell pepper and grabanzos, stir to distribute then cover. Let simmer until broth is reduced and thick. Transfer in a serving dish and enjoy while warm. Bon appetit!
Video
Notes
- To reduce cooking time for tenderizing the tripe and pork feet, you can use a pressure cooker. Add all ingredients listed above for boiling the tripe and cook in a pressure cooker for 30 – 40 minutes. Remove the tripe from the cooker and save the stock.
