Tripas à Moda do Porto

Ingredients

• 1 kg veal tripe (honeycomb and blanket)
• 1 veal or pig's trotter, split
• 1/2 chicken (about 600 g)
• 200 g presunto or smoked ham, in one piece
• 1 chouriço de carne (about 150 g)
• 100 g smoked streaky bacon
• 300 g dried white beans (manteiga or cannellini)
• 3 carrots
• 2 onions
• 4 garlic cloves
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 60 g pork lard
• 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp coarse salt, for scrubbing
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• 3 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 300 g white rice, boiled, to serve

Before you cook

• Put the beans in a bowl of cold water and leave them to soak overnight.
• Rub the tripe hard all over with the coarse salt and the cut halves of the lemon, then rinse it under cold running water.
• Repeat that salt and lemon scrub a second time, until the tripe smells clean and looks pale.
• Cut the tripe into strips about 1 cm wide and 5 cm long.
• Chop the onions and garlic, slice the carrots into thick coins, and dice the bacon.

Steps

1. Put the tripe and the split trotter into a large pot and cover them with cold water.
2. Bring the pot to a boil and let it bubble hard for five minutes.
3. Drain everything and rinse the tripe and trotter under hot water.
4. Return them to the clean pot with fresh water, one bay leaf and a pinch of salt.
5. Simmer for two hours, until the tripe is tender enough to cut with the side of a spoon.
6. Put the chicken, presunto and chouriço into a second pan with water to cover.
7. Simmer that pan for forty minutes, then lift the meats out and keep the broth.
8. Drain the soaked beans and cook them in fresh unsalted water for about fifty minutes, until tender but still whole.
9. Melt the lard in a very large pot over medium heat.
10. Add the diced bacon and cook it for four minutes, until the fat runs.
11. Add the onions, garlic and the remaining bay leaves and cook for ten minutes, until soft and golden.
12. Stir in the carrots and cook for three minutes.
13. Add the drained tripe and turn it through the sofrito for two minutes.
14. Pull the chicken meat off the bone, tear it into pieces and add it to the pot.
15. Dice the presunto, slice the chouriço and pick the meat off the trotter, then add all of it.
16. Add the drained beans to the pot.
17. Pour in enough of the reserved meat broth to just cover everything.
18. Stir in the cumin and simmer gently, uncovered, for twenty-five minutes.
19. Taste and season with salt and plenty of black pepper.
20. Check the texture: the broth should cling and be thick, so simmer a little longer if it is still soupy.
21. Scatter over the chopped parsley.
22. Serve in warm bowls with plain boiled white rice on the side.