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Henan'omby ritra

Name: Henan'omby ritra
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 110 min
Total time: 130 min
Yield: 5 servings
Cuisine: Madagascar
Ingredients: 1000 g beef chuck, brisket, or zebu stewing beef, cut into 4 cm chunks; 1 large onion, roughly chopped; 6 cloves garlic, crushed; 30 g fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into thick coins; 2 medium ripe plum tomatoes, roughly diced; 2 tbsp rendered beef tallow or neutral cooking oil; 750 ml water, plus extra if needed; 1.5 tsp fine sea salt; 1 tsp whole Madagascar black peppercorns, coarsely cracked

Tender chunks of zebu beef slow-braised until the cooking juices evaporate, searing the meat in its own rendered fat.

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malagasybeefbraisehighlands

The story

Central to traditional Imerina life, Henan'omby ritra is the crown jewel of ceremonial feasts (famadihana) and celebratory Sunday gatherings across Madagascar's highlands. The culinary term 'ritra' describes a precise ancestral cooking technique where meat is simmered in seasoned water until all liquid evaporates completely, compelling the tenderized meat to fry and caramelize in its own rendered fat. Historically made exclusively with pasture-grazed Malagasy zebu beef, it requires tough, collagen-rich cuts that convert into melting gelatin over hours of controlled reduction.

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