Kersha

Soaked in vinegar and salt and then parboiled twice, with both waters thrown away.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef, beef stock.

Ingredients

the tripe

• 1.5 kg beef tripe
• 6 tablespoons white vinegar
• 4 tablespoons coarse salt
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 2 lemons, halved

the stew

• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 10 cloves garlic, crushed
• 4 tablespoons ghee
• 3 tablespoons tomato purée
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1.2 litres beef stock
• juice of 1 lemon
• a handful of parsley, chopped
• salt and black pepper

Method

1. IT IS SOAKED IN VINEGAR AND SALT AND THEN PARBOILED TWICE, WITH BOTH WATERS THROWN AWAY. Four separate cleaning stages before the stew is even started, and every one of them is load-bearing: rubbed hard with flour and coarse salt, which abrades the surface and lifts what is on it; soaked an hour in water with six tablespoons of vinegar and the cut lemons; parboiled ten minutes and that water poured away; rinsed and parboiled again for ten minutes and that water poured away too. Tripe carries a strong smell that no amount of spice will cover, and it is removed by this sequence or it is in the finished dish. Skipping it is the only way this recipe really fails, and it fails at the table.
2. IT IS SCRUBBED AND TRIMMED BEFORE ANY OF THAT. Any dark patches or fatty tags cut away with scissors, and the honeycomb side scrubbed with a brush under running water. Butchers sell tripe at varying degrees of preparation and none of them is finished.
3. TWO TABLESPOONS OF CUMIN AND TEN CLOVES OF GARLIC, AND BOTH ARE CORRECT. Tripe is mild once cleaned but it needs a seasoning strong enough to give the dish a character of its own. Under-spiced, a pot of tripe tastes of very little and the texture is then the only thing to think about.
4. IT IS SIMMERED UNTIL GENUINELY TENDER, WHICH IS TWO HOURS AND MAY BE THREE. The test is a piece that cuts with the side of a spoon and yields completely. Tripe that is merely cooked is rubbery, and there is no middle ground -- it is either underdone or tender.
5. IT IS CUT INTO STRIPS AFTER THE PARBOILING, NOT BEFORE. Easier to clean and handle whole, and easier to cut once it has firmed in the first boil. Two-centimetre strips.
6. THE LEMON GOES IN AT THE END. Juice of one, off the heat. Acid against offal is what lifts it, and simmered for two hours it would be long gone.
7. The tripe trimmed of dark patches and fatty tags and SCRUBBED under running water.
8. Rubbed HARD with the FLOUR, then with the COARSE SALT.
9. SOAKED 1 HOUR in water with the VINEGAR and the halved lemons.
10. Rinsed, then PARBOILED 10 MINUTES and THE WATER THROWN AWAY.
11. Rinsed again, PARBOILED a SECOND time 10 MINUTES, and THAT WATER THROWN AWAY TOO.
12. Cut into strips about 2 cm wide.
13. The ghee heated, the onions softened 8 MINUTES, the garlic and ONE tablespoon of the cumin fried 40 SECONDS.
14. The purée, coriander and cayenne fried 2 MINUTES, then the tripe, bay, cinnamon and stock added.
15. Simmered, lid on, 2 to 3 HOURS, until a piece cuts with the side of a spoon.
16. The second tablespoon of cumin stirred in, then the lemon juice and parsley off the heat.
17. TESTED: there should be no smell of tripe at all, and it should yield completely. Any smell means a cleaning stage was skipped.
18. Served hot with bread and more lemon.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Egypt · All recipes