PINAPAITAN

A meat dish usually goat, popular in the Ilocos region. Its bitter flavor is due to a few drops of bile or the half-digested contents of the first portion of the small intestines

Papaitan Ingredients:

1/2 kilo following beef innards; cut in 1" cube

• tripe
• liver
• kidney
• heart
• pancreas
• intestines

1 cup beef tenderloin; cut in 1/2" cubes
1/4 cup bile
1 onion; minced
4 cloves garlic; minced
1 head ginger; minced
1/4 cup onion leaves
5 Philippine bird's eye peppers (siling labuyo)
Salt and pepper
Fish sauce

Ingredients for cleaning and boiling the innards:

1 lemon; sliced(optional)
8 kalamansi; sliced (optional)
Banana leaves (optional)
1 ginger root; crushed

Papaitan Cooking Instructions:

Wash and mash the raw innards with salt and banana leaves to get rid of the odor. When cleaned, boil in a large kettle with ginger and lemon or kalamasi until tender. Cut into 1/2 inch cubes/lengths. Set aside.

Saute ginger, garlic, and onion. When onion appears translucent, drop the beef innards. Spice with salt and pepper and continue sautéing until enough broth comes out from the innards. Pour enough water to cover the mixture. Bring to a boil and then drop the beef tenderloin. Stew the mixture until cooked, then drop the siling labuyo.

Add bile little by little (be careful not to over bitter taste) and adjust seasoning with fish sauce according to taste. Serve hot in a bowl and garnish with chopped onion leaves.

Cooking Tip:

To make it healthy and if you have the time, cook the papaitan long before you intend to serve. Let it cool, then refrigerate. All the fat will solidify, and you can easily scrape it from the surface. The taste will not change, it will even improve as the meat and all the condiments will have blended so well in the broth already.

Stewing the mixture in low fire for long hours until it becomes yellowish in color will bring the best result.

Calamansi juice will further enhance the taste. And if you want a stronger pepper aroma but not the spice, put some chopped siling haba.