Tiyula itum
A long beef broth coloured black by burnt coconut, which here is one seasoning among many.
Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef, fish sauce.
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg beef shin, in 4 cm cubes
- 150 g freshly grated coconut
- 40 g galangal, sliced
- 3 lemongrass stalks, bruised
- 60 g fresh ginger, sliced
- 10 garlic cloves
- 2 onions, chopped
- 2 teaspoons ground turmeric
- 2.5 litres water
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 6 siling labuyo
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 4 calamansi, to serve
Method
- THE POT STAYS LIQUID. That is the difference from the piyanggang manok on this site, which uses the same burnt coconut as a thick paste coating a grilled bird. Here it is one seasoning in two and a half litres of broth, and the result is a black SOUP you drink, not a sauce you spoon.
- So there is less of it, proportionally, and far more aromatics: galangal, lemongrass, ginger, turmeric and garlic all carry weight here in a way they do not in a dish built almost entirely on charcoal.
- Burn the coconut in a dry pan over a medium heat, stirred constantly, 15 to 18 minutes, until it is black and smoking.
- Grind it to a paste with the garlic and half the ginger, with a few tablespoons of water to let the blades work.
- Blanch the beef 10 minutes in boiling water, then drain and rinse the meat and the pot. A clear-tasting broth matters more here than in a thick dish, where scum is hidden.
- Fry the onions in the oil, 5 minutes, then the turmeric for 30 seconds, then the black paste for 3 minutes.
- Beef in, turned through the paste, then the water, galangal, lemongrass and the rest of the ginger.
- Simmer covered 2 hours 30, until the shin is tender and the sinew has gone soft and sticky. Skim in the first 20 minutes.
- Fish sauce at the end, once the volume has settled, and the chillies for the last 5 minutes.
- Lemongrass and galangal out. Serve with calamansi halves -- the acid is what stops a black broth tasting heavy.
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