Bulalo Recipe

IMAGE Majoy Siason

Imagine this: it's a chilly, rainy night. It's time for dinner and you get a scoop (or two) of warm, fluffy rice. In front of you is a bowl of beef bulalo with its piping hot beef broth, melt-in-your-mouth beef shanks, sweet corn, fresh pechay and cabbage, and the all-important, sinfully satisfying bone marrow. This is bulalo in all its hearty and heartwarming glory.

If you are craving Filipino comfort food, look no further than this beef bulalo recipe. This classic Filipino dish is cooked with bone-in beef shanks, as they contain a lot of utak ng buto or bone marrow, which is one of the highlights of the dish.

Bone-in beef shanks are usually quite large, usually around 5 to 8 inches in length, so make sure to account for that when choosing a pot. Also remember that you will be adding other beef bulalo ingredients as well! If you don't have a big enough pot or want to cook a smaller batch, you can also use cross-cut beef shanks, which are smaller cuts of beef shanks (think: a 1- to 2-inch thick steak with bone marrow in the center). 

You'll also notice that the first step in this beef bulalo recipe requires you to boil the beef for 10 minutes and then throw that water out. This is crucial as it gets rid of the scum from the broth, which is the protein from the meat that can make your soup cloudy. 

If you want a fuss-free option of cooking bulalo, you can also opt to use a slow cooker. You will still have to do the first step, as mentioned, and then continue with the rest of the recipe in the same way with your slow cooker. Once it's in, you can leave it on High for the first 3 to 4 hours until the beef are fork-tender. However, if you want to leave it on for longer (for that creamy, melt-in-your-mouth bulalo), you can continue on Low for another 4 hours. 

Once you have your beef bulalo dish ready to eat, serve it with lots of hot steamed rice and fish sauce with sili and calamansi!