Callos ala Madrid

The Chubbychef — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:28:43 +0000

For years now, I’ve noticed that some of the family traditions with regard to food are not common or rather not normal. We always serve callos, bacalao, oysters, and ham during certain events. For lenten season, since meat is frowned upon, easter lunch would always have bacalao (which is in itself a kind of fish already deep into the spanish tradition; it means dried salt cod), and osyters. As for Christmas tradition we would always have callos and lengua served to us during family dinner. We would have other food, like lechon and pasta, but as you can always expect to find the two dishes during any family gathering.

I read somewhere that the tradition of food expresses a lot about a family. I would best describe our family dish then being callos. Callos you see is, a mixture, of tripe, ox leg, Chorizo de Bilbao, garbanzos, tomatoes, red bell pepper, and seasoning. The technique here is to simmer the ox leg and tripe under firewood and pressure cook them in the end to make them literally melt in your mouth. The smokey flavor the wood cooking process adds is just heavenly. This kind of meal is best eaten with some bread and drizzle some olive oil and you’ve got yourself a prize meal.

Just a little background about the dish. The dish is a winter dish served during the cold months in Spain. This dish is high energy in order to help Spaniards complete daily tasks as well as keep their bodies warm.

I guess I am lucky to be part of a family rich in tradition, even if it only in food. I grew up loving this dish. I will pass it on to my kids. I guess I should be thankful for at least this during Christmas.

Foodie Manila » callos

Callos ala Madrid