Cecile’s Callos At Home

One of the favorite dishes of my parents is Cecile’s Callos. Cecile, is our home cook and has been with our family for 23 years! 😯 She is an excellent cook and comes up with amazing dishes!

I visited my mom’s house today and Cecile was making her famous Callos. I whipped out my camera and started to document the cooking process. She usually makes a HUGE batch and stores it in the freezer, so when they want callos, they can have it anytime they want 😉

Callos is basically easy to make, but quite tedious because you have to soften the meat for several hours. Once the meat is softened, it’s pretty easy from there. The meat of choice for my family’s Callos is oxtail and beef pata (beef hocks).

Here are the ingredients:

Green olives, garbanzo beans, red and green bell peppers, chorizo bilbao (we used purefoods, tastes better with chorizo El Rey. mmmmm)

Onions, garlic and long green chilies

Tomato paste and tomato sauce

Step 1:  In a stock pot, cook oxtail and beef pata (separately) until the “scum” floats to the top.  Skim and discard. Wash meat and place meat in a pressure cooker and cook until tender. Chop up into bite size pieces and set aside.

Step 2: In a large pot/wok, heat olive oil. Add onions and saute for 5 minutes. Add garlic and saute for another minute. Add cooked/tenderized oxtail and beef pata. Stir to combine and cook for about 10 minutes.

Step 3: Add water and mix well. Add tomato paste and stir to combine. Let simmer for about 5-7 minutes.

Step 4: Add chorizo bilbao and tomato sauce. Mix well and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Step 5: Add garbanzo beans, green chilies, green olives and bell peppers. Add chicken cubes and season with salt and pepper to taste. 😀 If the Callos seems to be too thick, add water until desired consistency. Simmer for another 15 minutes. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. Remember, easy on the salt because as you re-heat the callos the more intense the flavours become. 😉 Serve with a delicious crusty loaf.

Voila! Cecile’s Callos. Super nom…nom..nom… 😛

This is quite a big batch of callos so you can alter it to the proportions you need.

3    kg       oxtail

1.5  kg      beef pata

1      cup    extra virgin olive oil

3    lg      white onions, sliced

3   heads garlic, smashed

6   pcs    red bell peppers

6   pcs    green bell peppers

10  pcs    green chilies (like the one for sinigang)

5   cans   chorizo bilbao (we used purefoods)

3   bottles green olives

340 g      tomato paste

1  kg       tomato sauce

3   cans  garbanzo beans

to taste  salt and pepper

5    cups    water

2               chicken bullion cubes

 

“Food nourishes the body as God’s Word nourishes the soul”