Guru

Ingredients

Tripe

• 1 kgbeef tripe
• coarse salt, for cleaning
• 2bay leaves

Sauce

• 2onions, sliced
• 3tomatoes, chopped
• 4 clovesgarlic, crushed
• 2 tbspoil
• 1 tspcurry powder
• 1stock cube
• salt
• black pepper

To serve

• sadza
• covo or rape greens

Directions

1. Wash the tripe through several changes of water, scraping it with a knife, and rub it with coarse salt until the strong smell has gone.
2. Cleaning is not optional and it is most of the work. Badly cleaned tripe cannot be rescued by anything you do to it later.
3. Cut it into pieces of about 4 cm.
4. Boil it in salted water with the bay leaves for 2 to 3 hours, until it is genuinely soft.
5. Give it the full time. Tripe that is merely tender is still rubbery, and guru should be soft enough to cut with the edge of a spoon.
6. Top the water up as it goes and keep about 500 ml of the liquid at the end.
7. Fry the onions in the oil until deep gold, then add the garlic and curry powder.
8. Add the tomatoes and cook them down to a thick sauce, about 10 minutes.
9. Add the drained tripe with the reserved liquid and the stock cube, and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.
10. Let it reduce until the sauce clings. Guru is not a soup, and it should sit on the sadza rather than run off it.
11. Season generously with salt and black pepper and taste again, because tripe takes up a great deal of salt.
12. Serve hot with sadza and a plate of greens.
13. Offal is butchered and sold cheaply at township markets, and long-cooked tripe is a beer-hall dish as much as a home one.

Technique

• Some cooks put trotters or beef feet in the pot as well, for the gelatine they give the sauce.
• A pressure cooker cuts the boiling to about 45 minutes and is widely used.
• It is often eaten with the fingers alongside the sadza rather than with a fork.

Substitutions

• Any tripe, though honeycomb is the most forgiving.
• Beef shin, cooked the same way, for a version without offal.

Variations

• With peanut butter stirred through, which is a common Zimbabwean treatment.
• With chilli, for a hotter pot.
• Cooked with trotters, as mazondo negulu.

History

Offal is butchered and sold cheaply at township markets; the long-cooked tripe is a beer-hall dish eaten with sadza.

Frequently asked questions

What is Guru?

Guru is a soup & stew from Zimbabwe: tripe simmered for hours with onion and tomato until soft. Offal is butchered and sold cheaply at township markets; the long-cooked tripe is a beer-hall dish eaten with sadza.

How long does Guru take to make?

Guru takes 30 min of preparation and 3 hr 30 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Guru?

Yes, within limits. Any tripe, though honeycomb is the most forgiving. Beef shin, cooked the same way, for a version without offal.

What is the most important thing to get right in Guru?

Cleaning is not optional and it is most of the work. Badly cleaned tripe cannot be rescued by anything you do to it later.