Balbacua

Oxtail and skin cooked long past tender, until the broth sets to jelly when it cools.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef, fish sauce.

Ingredients

1.5 kg oxtail, in joints
700 g beef skin, in squares
4 tablespoons peanut butter
3 tablespoons fermented black beans
2 tablespoons annatto powder
1 onion, chopped
10 garlic cloves, crushed
40 g fresh ginger, sliced
3 litres water
3 tablespoons fish sauce
6 siling labuyo
3 tablespoons oil
2 star anise

Method

COOKED PAST TENDER ON PURPOSE. Every other long-boiled beef dish on this site stops when the meat gives. This one keeps going for another hour and a half after that, because the point is the gelatine coming out of the skin and tendon. You know it is right when a spoonful cooled on a saucer sets to jelly and your lips stick together slightly.
Blanch the oxtail and skin together in boiling water 10 minutes, then drain and rinse both the meat and the pot. Skin releases a great deal of scum.
Fry the garlic, onion and ginger in the oil in a large pot, 5 minutes.
Black beans in, mashed against the pan, 2 minutes. Annatto in for 30 seconds.
Oxtail and skin in, turned over. Water and star anise in.
Simmer covered 3 hours 30 minutes to 4 hours. Top up with boiling water if the meat comes clear of the surface. At two hours the meat is tender and it is NOT ready.
The skin tells you: it should be translucent and so soft it folds over itself on the spoon, with no resistance anywhere.
Peanut butter slaked in a ladleful of the hot broth and stirred back in. Added straight from the jar it sits in lumps that never disperse.
Fish sauce and chillies in, 15 minutes more uncovered to thicken.
Rest it 20 minutes off the heat. The fat rises and can be spooned off if you want, though most of the texture of the dish is in it.

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 Philippines · All recipes