Beef Tendon and Tripe

Fifth Brother brought me an appliance today from Third Brother, a beautiful Butterfly pressure cooker as a get-well gift! He also bought a fresh chicken to cook in the appliance, using a concoction of herbs in a bag. The chicken turned out aromatic, sweet and fragrant, and was so tender a fork could break apart the meat!

The next day I decided to try something else, one that would challenge any skilful chef: cooking and preparing beef tendon and tripe! "Yikes - not those!" I can hear Fifth brother shriek in disbelief and despair. "Those are meant for dogs, not humans!" "Well, have you tried?" I ventured. "Once you do you'll never go back to your regular meat again, not unlike foie gras."

Ingredients:

Beef Tendon 300-400 gm
Beef Tripe 300-400 gm
2 cloves garlic, smashed
2 slices old ginger, smashed
1 T Oil
Optional: radish, cut into bite-sized chunks

Sauce mix:
1 T light soya sauce
1 T hoisin sauce
1 T oyster sauce
1/2 T sesame oil
1 T chinese rice wine
1 piece dried orange peel - substitute fresh if you don't have dried ones

Method:
1. Cover the beef tendon and tripe with 1-in water in the pressure cooker.
2. Cook the tripe for 18 min and the tendon for 25 min.

That timing should result in tendon that is tender yet chewable, not mushy. Same for the tripe. You may have to vary the timing to suit your taste buds.

Once the cooker starts to hiss, turn the flame to low and continue to cook for the time indicated. Then turn off the fire and let the pressure cooker cool down by itself (or place under the tap and turn on the water) to open safely before you remove the tripe. If either the tendon or tripe is not tender enough to your palate, you may continue the pressure cooking in 5-min intervals, until you get a doneness that suits you.

When you are happy with the tenderness of the tendon and tripe, continue with the rest of the ingredients:

3. Fry the ginger and garlic in hot oil until fragrant.
4. Add the sauce ingredients and boil for 1 minute.
5. Add the tripe and tendon cut into bite-sized pieces.
6. Add the radish which has been pressure-cooked for 1 min.
7. Add water to the sauce mix in the wok to taste.

Outcome: Simply yummily good! Though Fifth brother would most certainly disagree!