Ciorbă de Burtă

Ingredients

• 1 kg cleaned beef tripe
• 1 veal knuckle or 2 beef marrow bones
• 3 litres cold water
• 2 onions
• 3 carrots
• 1 parsnip
• 150 g celeriac
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 2 bay leaves
• 6 garlic cloves
• 3 tbsp white wine vinegar, plus more to taste
• 4 egg yolks
• 300 ml smântână or full fat sour cream
• 50 ml double cream
• 0.5 tsp white pepper
• 6 pickled hot peppers, to serve
• 4 garlic cloves, for the garlic sauce
• 3 tbsp cold water, for the garlic sauce
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil, for the garlic sauce

Before you cook

• Rinse the tripe under cold running water, rubbing it with coarse salt, then rinse again until the water runs clear and the tripe is pure white.
• Peel the onions and cut them in half.
• Peel the carrots, parsnip and celeriac and cut them into large pieces.
• Peel all the garlic.
• Crush the four garlic cloves for the sauce to a paste with a pinch of salt, then whisk in the cold water and the oil to make a loose garlic mujdei.
• Whisk the egg yolks, smântână and double cream together in a bowl until smooth.

Steps

1. Put the tripe and the veal knuckle in a large pot and cover with the cold water.
2. Bring the pot to the boil over high heat.
3. Skim off every trace of grey foam as it rises.
4. Drain the pot, rinse the tripe and the bone, and wash out the pot.
5. Return the tripe and bone to the clean pot and cover with fresh cold water.
6. Bring back to the boil, then lower the heat until the surface barely moves.
7. Add the onions, carrots, parsnip, celeriac, bay leaves, peppercorns and the six whole garlic cloves.
8. Simmer gently for 3 hours, topping up with hot water if the level drops below the tripe.
9. Test the tripe by cutting a piece, which should give under a knife with almost no resistance.
10. Lift the tripe out onto a board and let it cool enough to handle.
11. Strain the broth through a fine sieve into a clean pot and throw away the vegetables and bone.
12. Cut the tripe into thin strips about five centimetres long and half a centimetre wide.
13. Return the strips to the strained broth and bring it back to a bare simmer.
14. Season the soup with the salt and white pepper.
15. Take the pot off the heat and let it stop bubbling.
16. Whisk two ladles of hot broth into the yolk and cream mixture, one at a time, to warm it gradually.
17. Pour the tempered cream back into the pot in a thin stream while stirring.
18. Put the pot over the lowest heat and warm it for 3 minutes without ever letting it boil.
19. Stir in the vinegar, then taste and add more until the soup is properly sour.
20. Ladle into deep bowls and hand round the garlic mujdei and the pickled hot peppers for each person to add.