Douara (offal stew) recipe

As promised, here is my recipe for Douara, a Tunisian offal stew. I use the ingredients as a guide and have no strict measurements, so these are just rough estimates. 

• About one kg of offal (we used cow's offal, but sheep or goat is good too) - It's usually a mixture of  inestine and tripe, but lungs go well in this dish too        

•one onion                                                              

•a few heaped spoons of tomato paste              

•seasonings of your choice (I used a Tunisian spice mixture, garlic, turmeric, and salt)  

•vegetables I used: tomatoes, hot green peppers, potatoes, parsley, and chard              

•some cooking oil and water 

First off, make sure your meat is very clean. Our butchers clean it thoroughly, but when we home butcher we have to do it ourselves obviously. Then cut into pieces and boil in water, just until the water boils. Then drain. Don't skip this step, it will prevent the dish from becoming bitter. 

Then clean the pot (or just get another one), the remainder from the boiled offal can be a bit sticky. Chop your onion and sautee in some oil. Then add the garlic, diced tomatoes, salt, and spices*. Also add in your tomato paste and sautee for another minute or so. Now add in the meat and about three to four cups of water. It depends on how you like your stew and how long it needs to cook (the older the animal, the longer it needs to cook). About an hour into the cooking, add in your chopped vegetables and chopped parsley. You can use any vegetables of your choice, I just use what I had on hand. Leaving out the vegetables altogether (except for the onion) is possible too, I prefer some veggies in my stew though. I cooked this stew for about an hour and a half. Since it was calf offal, it didn't have to cook for hours to get it tender. 

We eat this with either baguette from the  bakery or homemade bread. 

*I use an Tunisian spice mixture called 'tabel karwiya' which consists of mainly caraway and coriander, and if you can't find this spice mixture you can make your own. (A suggestion would be caraway, coriander, turmeric, cumin, and black pepper). I've also found that Chinese 5 spice powder mixed with garam masala (a 1:1 ratio) is a decent replacement. Or you can just use the seasonings of your choice, such as Mexican spices. Also, if you dont use hot pepper (like I did), I'd recommend to add some ground hot pepper, harissa, or other condiment.