Bulalo - Filipino Beef Soup

Travelling to different parts of the Philippines, you’ll see variations of foods and recipes that you haven’t seen before. Many provinces have their own proud recipe, their unique trademark when it comes to food. One province that I know is Batangas. Famous as the cattle raising region of the Philippines, Batangeños found their own unique way of cooking their specialty – Bulalo. Bulalo or beef bone marrow soup in English, has win hearts of many Filipinos over the years, and has been a Filipino soup favorite. They say that the hotter this soup is the better. So now, let’s discover how this soup is cooked. A unique Philippine food cooked the Filipino way!
 

Estimated preparation time is 10 minutes, cooking time is two hours and 30 minutes. Here are the ingredients:

•    2 kg beef bone marrow, have your butcher chop it into small pieces
•    1 kg boneless beef shank or stewing beef
•    1 onion, peeled and sliced
•    3 liters water
•    2-3 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
•   2-3 saba (plantain) bananas, each cut into two pieces
•    1 whole medium cabbage, quartered
•    3-4 tablespoons fish sauce (patis)
•    Salt and pepper to taste
 

Now, that you have all the ingredients ready, let’s start cooking. First, blanch bone marrow and boneless

beef shank or stewing beef in hot boiling water for a while and rinse in cold running tap water to remove scum and blood. Next, place bone marrow and onion in a stockpot, pour in the 3 liters of water and bring to the boil. Then, lower heat and simmer for about 40 minutes. Add the boneless beef shank or stewing beef and return to the boil. When it boils, lower heat and simmer until beef is tender, about 1 to 1½ hours. When tenderizing, we could use jackfruit leaves, it helps on tenderizing the beef faster. Now, add the potatoes and bananas. Let it simmer until potatoes and bananas are tender, this may take about 10 to 15 minutes. Afterwards, add the cabbage and stir in fish sauce, salt and pepper to taste. And finally, cook the whole mixture until cabbage is tender-crisp, this would be about 2 minutes. Serve with rice. And that’s it!

Beef, the primary ingredient of bulalo, is a good source of minerals, such as zinc, selenium, phosphorus and iron, and B vitamins. See, bulalo is not just a good soup; it’s a healthy soup as well.

Cooking this beef recipe might take time, because of the beef. The beef should be tender enough for you to chew; it’s hard to eat beef when it’s not tender enough (remember that!). Another good thing to add in this recipe is to use bouillon cubes, there are many commercial products who sell this cubes in beef flavour. This would add taste to your bulalo.

Preparing dishes for your family is always fun, because you know that what you are cooking is safe, delicious, and healthy. So, why not try this Filipino recipe, Bulalo, for your next dish? It’s not just delicious, but also good for the health. Happy eating.