Tripas and Cacti

In case you missed our last post, we found out that Tripas are the small intestines of a cow. After discovering more about how Tripas are supposed to be eaten, besides the rare usage as sausage casing, we couldn’t help but buy another package to play with. Traditionally in Mexican cooking, Tripas are prepared outdoors on a Disco (dee-sko) –  which basically looks like a huge wok. The Tripas are boiled for a couple of hours until tender and then allowed to reduce until all the water is gone and only their fat remains for them to fry in. Lacking a Disco, we opted to cook the Tripas indoors, and instead of reducing all the way, we added some peanut oil in the final step to get them nice and crispy. Since cooking them, we’ve actually had a chance to try authentic Taco de Tripas at Laredo’s Jamboozie festival this past weekend and after taste testing several we happily would rank our version middle of the pack.