Beef tripe cooked until tender is cooled, sliced, marinated in Vietnamese mixed fish sauce, tossed in starch, and deep fried until golden and crisp. Serve with a tangy and spicy dipping sauce as an appetizer, snack or main course.
Cook’s notes
My husband, Speedy, discovers the most unusual recipes. Ironically, the ones he finds are recipes I won’t even give a second thought to and I start asking myself why I didn’t discover them in the first place. This deep fried crispy beef tripe is one of them. He saw something similar on a British web site (the site no longer exists) back in 2010, tweaked the recipe and came up with a winner.
What tripe is best? Either honeycomb or blanket tripe should be good, but NOT leaf or book tripe. If you’re new at cooking beef tripe, there are three kinds with each coming from a distinct part of the cow’s stomach. In the market, tripe is often sold bleached which gives the offal a whiter appearance. Unbleached tripe is more yellow than white.
The recipe. It’s so simple, really. It’s the long simmering time for the tripe to become tender that requires patience. It’s a process that you just can’t hurry up. A pressure cooker will shorten the cooking time but if you like total control over the texture, a slow cooker or simmering on the stovetop is a better idea. You can check the tripe’s progress occasionally so that there’s no risk of overcooking it.
Whichever way you choose to cook the tripe, the rest of the procedure for frying it is the same. You cut the tripe into strips, you marinate the tender strips, you toss in starch then deep fry.
Starch, not flour? Potato starch is recommended. If you use wheat flour, you had better consume the tripe fast because the crispy coating will stay that way for long. If you use starch, the fried tripe will stay crisp longer. Note, however, that starch should be used sparingly. A little dusting goes a long way. Overdo the starch and the coating will be too dense.
The frying part does not take long. Five to seven minutes over high heat and the surface of the tripe turns perfectly golden and crisp. For best results, fry the tripe in batches. You don’t want them to clamp together and neither do you want the temperature of the oil to drop.
Crispy beef tripe
Ingredients
For simmering the tripe
- 500 grams beef tripe (1.1 pounds) honeycomb or blanket
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon whole peppercorns
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 shallot halved
- 1 half-inch knob ginger
- 1 bay leaf
Vietnamese mixed fish sauce
- 4 tablespoons fish sauce
- 4 tablespoons calamansi juice or lemon or lime juice
- 2 tablespoon refined sugar
- 2 teaspoon chopped garlic
- 2 bird’s eye chilies thinly sliced
For frying
- ¼ to ⅓ cup potato starch
- cooking oil
To serve
- 1 shallot peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 to 2 tablespoons thinly sliced scallions
- ground black pepper
Instructions
Simmer the tripe
- Rinse the tripe well. Use a soft brush to scrub the surface to remove any impurities. Rinse again and place in a pot.
- Pour enough water into the pot to cover the tripe completely. Bring to the boil and boil hard for about 10 minutes. Drain, discard the water and rinse the tripe well.
- Put the tripe in a clean pot and cover with water. Add the salt, peppercorns, garlic, shallot, ginger and bay leaf. Simmer until tender. Top with water as needed every two hours or so.
- Drain the tripe and cool.
Marinate the tripe
- Cut the cooled tripe into strips about half an inch wide and three inches long.
- Place the tripe strips in a bowl, add half of the Vietnamese mixed fish sauce. Mix well.
- Cover the bowl and marinate the tripe in the fridge overnight.
Deep fry the tripe
- Heat enough cooking oil in a wok or pan to reach a depth of at least three inches.
- Drain the tripe.
- Add the potato starch to the drained tripe and toss to coat each piece well with starch.
- When the oil is hot, drop the starched tripe strips into it. Fry, about 10 to 12 pieces at a time, until a deep golden crust forms on the surface of the tripe.
- Drain the deep-fried tripe on a rack or a stack of paper towels.
Serve
- Stir the remaining Vietnamese mixed fish sauce with the sliced shallots, scallions, a pinch of pepper and two tablespoons of water to make the dipping sauce.
- Serve the deep-fried crispy tripe with the dipping sauce on the side.
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