Gotong Batangas (Beef Tripe and Innards Soup): "Tama na ang bitter-bitteran!"

Not into Ilocano Papaitan but love beef innard soup. Good news for you, the Batanguenos have a non-Bitter Ocampo way of doing the beef innards soup. Goto means tripe in english but since a lot of Filipino dishes with goto in it are actually combination of beef innards and not exclusively tripe, I think every "goto" dish has other tasty questionable bits in it too. Hehehe!

My version of this dish requires roasting of garlic, onion, ginger and peppers for added flavor. You can do away with that if you want. It just so happens that I have a lot of time that's why I did it. 

GOTONG BATANGAS

1 1/2 kilo of beef innards:

• tripe
• heart
• kidney
• liver
• intestine
• you can also ask your butcher if he/she has beef skin, lungs and blood. You can put those too.                   

1 head of roasted garlic, peeled and minced

1 large roasted onion peeled and minced

2 thumb size roasted ginger julienned

6 green chili peppers (sili pansigang) roasted

1/2 cup of vinegar

1/4 cup of green onions chopped

1 tablebspoon cooking oil

10 cups of cold water

sprigs of cilantro or parsley 

salt and black pepper to taste 

atsuete-garlic oil (annato-garlic oil)

plenty of rock salt and a cup of vinegar for cleaning the innards. Yes for cleaning the innards. 

Procedure:

1. Clean beef innards. As in rinse it really well, at least twice. Rub rock salt and soak in vinegar for at least 10 minutes. Rinse it again in running water, twice. Make sure you rinse it thoroughly because you don't want any unwanted stuff in your soup bowl. 

2. In a pot, parboil the innards for 15 minutes. Discard water, rinse the innards again then drain. Make sure that there is no scum left on the meat. Also, clean the pot free from scum.

3. Put the cold water in the pot then the innards. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove the scum that will appear at the surface. Turn to low heat. Cook till the innards are tender. Let the innards cool and save the broth.

4. Remove the innards from the and cut into bite size pieces.

5. In another pot, saute the beef innards with garlic, onion and ginger. Add the vinegar and cook for 2 minutes, do not stir.

6. Add the remaining broth to the pot. Bring to a boil then add the salt and pepper.

7. Add the green chili pepper to the pot. Cover and simmer for another 10 minutes under medium heat. 

8. Serve the Goto in a bowl and top with sprigs of parsley and green onions. Drizzle with atsuete-garlic oil. You can have it with hot chili and calamansi on the side.

9. Enjoy!