Dirty DaVinci on 27/10/2005 at 14:49

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Ni moronga ni rinones, hermano?! Dios mio, lo que te has perdido! Tienes que probarlos. Especialment rinones fritos sobre una parilla.

Curvas de las nenas latinas? Hermano, esas ninas me han quemado una vez mas de los necesario. Eliji mejor una pelirroja de ojos azules y una "curvas" tremendas :ebil: Que puedo decir? Algunas de estas Gringas estan como quieres :cheeky:

VIVA MEXICO, CABRONES!

Menudo recipe coming up!

SubJeff on 27/10/2005 at 15:26

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Now you are just teasing. Let's hear some then. Not all of us whiteys cringe at innards. In the UK perhaps (the tripe you get here is awful) but in the Far East there are some fine tastes involving innards. Heck, you get tasty barbequed chicken backsides on sticks, and I'm not just talking the parson's nose either.

Dirty DaVinci on 27/10/2005 at 15:45

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Menudo. A good recipe I found, but with some alterations to give it a closer sense of what the Mexican version is like. My changes will be in italics:

The secret to the recipe is that the three parts, the tripe, the corn and the chile are cooked separately, and only mixed and cooked together just before serving. This keeps the flavors clean and separate, and the textures distinct. The following recipe is enough for a fair few people. Since it keeps the best, and takes the longest, start out with the tripe, or menudo.

El Menudo

Take three kilos of tripe, (menudo), wash it off well, trim out most of the fat, cut it into one inch squares. For those that don't know, the tripe is the cow's stomach. Honey combed is my prefered one, though others prefer "libro", a longer form where the villi of the stomach is more apparent. What some people do is put the tripe to soak for nearly twelve hours in water, just to remove any excess salt and other elements from the stomach. Cut it into a 'bite-size' you prefer. I've seen people cut it into strips as long as three inches. Drop into a pot of boiling water, simmer a few minutes and drain. This simmering process is designed to remove fat from the stomach. Some people do it two or three times to completely remove all fat. Put back into pot, and add one calf foot, or two pigs feet, cut up a bit. Cover well with water, and add: Obviously, these ingredients are for flavor, not essential, except for the garlic, sal and black pepper.

* ½ head garlic, whacked
* several small hot red chiles Use 'chile casabel' or 'puya' if you can
* 2 onions, sliced
* 3-4 bay leaves
* 1 tsp salt
* tsp black peppercorns, broken
* 2 Tbl dry leaf oregano
* 2 tsp cuminos seed, crushed
Obviously, these ingredients are for flavor, not essential, except for the garlic, sal and black pepper.


Put this on a very slow fire for several hours until very tender. Drain, saving liquid. Wash tripe. Remove bones from feet, or can leave feet whole until served. Return feet and tripe to liquid, cool and reserve. Refrigerated, this keeps well, and freezes fairly well. You may ask 'why pig's feet?' It's a popular additive to the plate, though I personally do not eat it. We've made Menudo without the pigs or calves feet and tastes just fine.

El Posole

While the menudo is simmering, cook the posole. This is the corn part, the Nixtamal, the magic. For the best, you started a couple days before with a good, native white corn. You soaked it in lime water, rubbed the skins off and washed it well, and it is ready to work with. This is a lot of work.

Frozen posole corn is also good, and canned posole/ hominy corn also will do. For this much of a recipe, you want several handfuls of dry white corn to start with, or a kilo (2 lb) package of frozen posole corn, or a gallon can of posole/ hominy corn. Unless you want to be standing for an hour or two doing this, the best thing to do is go to your local supermarket and buy the cans of pozole or pozole/hominy. They are already clean and quite tasty, plus it will save you time. Drain the corn and wash well. Cover with water. Bring to simmer and add a half head of garlic, whacked up a bit. Simmer gently till tender. Drain, and if you are not going to finish the Menudo immediately, cool the corn quickly and refrigerate it. Warm posole corn by itself ferments quickly, and should be kept either very hot or very cold until cooked in with the menudo. It will keep 3-4 days in the refrigerator, but freezes poorly. These last few sentences are precautions for the keep of the pozole when you've made from fresh pozole, peeled and clean. Another advantage of the canned pozole is that you can pour the contents into the can when you are reheating the tripe itself, as indicated down below. Pozole quickly absorbs flavors, so on the reheating procedure, it will capture a lot of flavor. But if you do decide to do the lenghty portion, do store it as soon as you can or prepare it simultaneously with the rest so you don't risk it going bad on you. If you can't get Pozole, you can buy the cans of hominy and substitute that. It tastes a bit different, but it does taste good and you can add it in when you are heating the tripe and red sauce together, as stated below

El Chile

Take one half pound of whole dry red large chiles. (The Mexican chiles are good, but the ones from Northern New Mexico, particularly from around Chimayo, are the best in the world. Eh, no, Central Mexico has better crops - Ed. note. ;) Put the whole dry chiles on a hot dry grill or frying pan and toss around a bit until just barely beginning to color. Be careful, they scorch easily. Remove, let cool, remove stems and most of the seeds. Cover with boiling water and let steep 15-20 minutes. Run through a food mill or a food processor, discard skins. After heated and steeped, the chile will peel of from the skin in parts. That is what you want. This 'pulp' will help flavor and color the entire meal.

To chile pulp add:

* 2 clove garlic, minced
* pinch cumin seed Make sure you like this stuff or it will alter your food
* Tbl vinegar
* tsp oregano
* pinch of salt
* tsp sugar Yes, sugar


Simmer up gently for a few minutes Fifteen to twenty minutes is a good amount of time. Cool and refrigerate. If you have any chile eaters around, this will be nowhere near enough chile for the amount of menudo made above, but will give you the idea. This is the basic Mexican Red Chile sauce, and is good with everything.

The Finish

Now you have all the parts together. To finish the Menudo, take a nice heavy dutch oven or saucepan, and add:

* 4 Cups Menudo tripe and liquid, divide it out evenly.
* 3 Cups drained Posole Corn
* 1 to 2 Cups Red Chile Sauce
* Enough water, stock or even a bit of beer if needed to make a fair bit of juice.


These proportions are, of course, strictly to taste. Bring all gently to simmer, while adding:

* 2 cloves garlic, fine chop
* 1 Tbl vinegar
* 1 Tbl leaf oregano
* 1 tsp cumin seed
* grind of black pepper
* dash of salt


Simmer for a few minutes. A lot of people simmer it for half an hour to an hour, allowing everything to be absorbed into the tripe and pozole. Serve with hot tortillas, and a small plate with a pile of dry oregano, some lime slices, piles of chopped cilantro, chopped onion, salt and some hot chiles. Diced radishes work well too, jalapenos, and white bread if you don't have any. I know a family that uses buttered french bread. It's not bad.

Menudo has been called "Breakfast of Champions", and there is no better cure for a hangover. This recipe is similar to the one we make, but there are many, many varieties, depending on who makes it. Read the variety out there online and in cook books. Enjoy!

Stitch on 27/10/2005 at 16:44

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lolololurk more

Cybernide on 27/10/2005 at 18:15

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Ah, yeah, I do mean the smaller cans. I'm not quite sure how much 6 or 8 oz are, and am a little too busy to bother checking right now, but I meant 300 ml cans. Like soft drinks. If you're going with the larger cans... one and a bit should be enough. :)

And I just eat a lot. Where it goes, I have no clue.