Binondo Style Beef Tendon Curry

Melt in your mouth, sticky delicious, those are the perfect works to describe this dish. Binondo Style Beef Tendon Curry is a Filipino Chinese beef tendon dish prepared by slowly simmering tendons with garlic, ginger, onion, red bell pepper. lemongrass, Chinese herbal seasoning mix in a curry powder and coconut milk infused sauce.

Binondo, this district in Manila is the oldest Chinatown in the world, established in 1594 with the help of the Spaniards as a settlement for the Chinese Catholic’s. Before it’s establishment this place was already the hub of Chinese commerce but with the colonial rulers wanting to keep a close eye on their migrant subjects the Spanish gave a land grant for Binondo to a group of Chinese merchants and artisans in perpetuity, tax-free and with limited self-governing privileges.

If you are a foodie and want to travel to the Philippines in the future, you need to put this place on your itinerary as Binondo is known for its Filipino Chinese food scene, specifically at the Ongpin Street where the majority of tea houses, restaurants, and hawker-style stalls can be located. I have been to Binondo a lot of times during the days and had my fair share of experiencing the variety of food on offer there. But for now, living 8,019 kilometres away all I can do is a virtual visit to Binondo either by looking at Google Street View https://goo.gl/maps/7Gng8exfh6WxPx1c7 or watch You Tube Videos of the place in the hope of learning new dishes to try.

Luckily GMA Public Affairs share their Pinas Sarap TV Series hosted by Kara David on YouTube and some of its episodes was a Binondo food tour.

On this video, there are several recipes I noted down so I can prepare it in the future. One of those recipes is what we are posting today, the HK Curry Beef Tendon from The Great Buddha Cafe, a flagship restaurant by Eng Bee Tin. As a lover of beef tendons, I made sure I had included this in my repertoire, and today was the day. The recipe and procedure was proudly and unselfishly shared by the chef, this means I did not have a hard time recreating them even though I haven’t tried it in real life, I made it to almost the exact ingredients list on the show including the MSG. Another thing that made me confident that the recipe below would match how they cook it in Binondo is that the chef said it was derived from a Hong Kong style curry, luckily, I lived in Hong Kong before and I know how their curries tasted like, and trust me whatever the outcome of the recipe we had below have the aroma and soul of the curries I tried in Hong Kong.

Binondo Style Beef Tendon Curry

★★★★★ 5 from 3 reviews

• Author: Raymund
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 5 hours 15 mins
• Total Time: 5 hours 30 mins
• Yield: 6 1x
• Category: Main Course
• Cuisine: Filipino

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Description

Binondo Style Beef Tendon Curry is a Filipino Chinese beef tendon dish prepared by slowly simmering tendons with garlic, ginger, onion, red bell pepper. lemongrass, Chinese herbal seasoning mix in a curry powder and coconut milk infused sauce.

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 kg beef tendons, sliced into 2-inch sections
• 2 medium potatoes, cubed
• 1 Chinese Soup Herb Bag / Herbal Soup Chinese Seasoning Set
• 3 stalks lemongrass, tied into a knot
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tsp MSG (optional, as suggested by the video)
• 1 red capsicum, chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2-inch ginger, thinly sliced
• 3 pcs shallots, thinly sliced
• 6 cups water
• 400 ml coconut milk
• chopped spring onions, to garnish
• oil

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Instructions

1. In a pot add oil then sauté garlic, ginger and shallots for a minute.
2. Add the red capsicum then sauté for a minute.
3. Pour the water into the pot together with the fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar. Add the tendons, Chinese Herb Bag, lemongrass and curry powder, bring it to a boil then simmer in low heat for 4 to 5 hours or until tendons are very soft in texture. Check liquid levels during the simmering process and add water if it dries out.
4. While tendons are simmering, prepare a deep fryer or a wok filled with oil, heat oil then once it reaches 180C, deep fry potatoes for 6 minutes or until cooked, remove from fryer then drain off excess oil. Set it aside.
5. Once tendons are soft add the fried potatoes and pour the coconut milk, mix well to combine then simmer for 2 minutes.
6. Garnish with chopped spring onions, then serve while hot with freshly cooked rice.

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