What is tripe? These are strips of book tripe from the omasum of cattle, which is the third chamber of a cow's stomach. The name, book tripe, refers to the similarity between the structure of the tripe with its many thin sheets and a book with its many thin pages. This is usually served with ginger and scallions for a lighter taste and are often chewy. Be on the lookout for its tasty and unique texture.

牛柏葉

Method: stovetop

Difficulty: low

Estimated Time: 1 hour

Servings: 2

Ingredients

• 10.5 ounces (300 grams) of beef tripe (omasum/book tripe variety)
• 0.07 ounces (2 grams) of salt
• 0.2 ounces (6 grams) of chicken powder (also called chicken bouillon)
• 0.35 ounces (10 grams) of white sugar
• 0.4 ounces (12 grams) of potato starch
• 0.5 teaspoon of white pepper
• 1 tablespoon of fermented bean curd (This is called fu jyu (腐乳) in Cantonese and is a seasoning ingredient sold in jars.)
• 1 tablespoon of rice cooking wine
• 1 tablespoon of onion oil (蔥油) (optional)
• 1 tablespoon of garlic oil or crushed garlic
• 1 tablespoon of black bean sauce (A seasoning ingredient sold in jars.)
• 1 teaspoon of sesame oil
• ginger
• scallion

Instructions

• Rinse beef tripe under running water. Make sure to get in between the layers.
• Fill pot with water, bring to a boil, then blanch tripe in boiling water for 10 seconds. Fill a bowl with cold water and submerge the tripe for 10 minutes.
• Cut tripe into small strips. Traditionally, the strips are roughly around 0.75 inch wide and 3 inches long, give or take. Alternatively, some prefer the strips to be thinner at around 0.25 inch wide and 3 inches long for a lighter feel. The direction to cut the tripe is as follows. Structurally, the tripe consists of a single thick foundation layer that many thin layers emanate from. Place the tripe with the thick foundation side facing down on a cutting board so that the thin layers are facing upwards towards you. Now rotate the tripe so that the thin layers are positioned vertically on the cutting board. The way to cut is horizontally against the thin layers (as opposed to vertically along the thin layers). As a side note, you are not supposed to cut the thin layers off from the thick layer.
• Cut ginger and scallion into thin strips.
• Add all ingredients into a large bowl along with the tripe and mix well. Then cover the bowl and let marinade for 30 minutes in refrigerator.
• After 30 minutes, take the tripe out and place onto a small bowl that can fit into a steamer. Steam on high heat for 5 minutes. Traditionally, a bamboo steamer placed over a pot of boiling water would be used. However, if you don't have one, you can also just use any kind of metal rack as a tray to hold the small bowl of tripe above some boiling water. Make sure to cover the pot or steamer so that the tripe really bake in the steam.
• Your beef tripe should now be all set to serve!

Bon Appétit!

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