Filipino · soup

Kansi (Beef Shank and Jackfruit Soup Soured with Batwan)

Kansi (Beef Shank and Jackfruit Soup Soured with Batwan) reads umami 8.9, funk & ferment 5.9 and salinity 5.9 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Filipino soup, about 3 hr 43 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Umami 8.9 · Funk & Ferment 5.9 · Salinity 5.9 · Richness 4.9 · Marine & Briny 4.7 · Fruity 3.6 · Sweetness 3.5 · Allium 3.4 · Citrus 3.2 · Sourness 3.0 · Heat 2.9 · Herbaceous 2.8 · Warm Spice 2.2 · Earthy 1.6 · Floral 1.5 · Bitterness 1.0 · Nutty 0.5

What's in it (12)

Time & effort: about 3 hr 43 min · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 40.3 kcal, 5.5 g protein, 1 g fat, 2.7 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (8 steps)

  1. Cover the beef shank with cold water in a large pot, bring to a boil and boil hard for 8 minutes. Drain, rinse the meat and the pot, and start again with the 3 litres of fresh water. Kansi should be clear, and this is how you get there.
  2. Bring back to a boil with the onion, ginger and lemongrass, skim any remaining foam, then simmer very gently, covered, for 2.5 to 3 hours. The meat should be falling from the bone and the marrow soft enough to push out with a spoon handle. Kansi sits exactly between bulalo and sinigang, and the marrow is not optional; it is what people order it for.
  3. Add the batwan and simmer 20 minutes. Batwan is the fruit of Garcinia binucao, used in Western Visayas the way tamarind is used in Luzon, and it is a different sourness: leaner, more austere, with a faint bitterness that suits beef. It is sold frozen or dried outside the Philippines. If you truly cannot get it, make sinigang instead and say so, rather than pretending tamarind is the same thing.
  4. Crush half the softened batwan against the side of the pot to release the pulp, then fish out and discard the skins if you prefer a smoother broth.
  5. Add the jackfruit chunks and the strained annatto water and simmer 20 to 25 minutes until the jackfruit is tender and has taken on the broth. It should be starchy and slightly stringy, somewhere between artichoke and young potato. Do not use ripe or tinned sweet jackfruit.
  6. Add the whole green chillies, fish sauce and salt and simmer 5 minutes more. Taste: sour and beefy should lead, with the annatto giving colour and a faint earthiness rather than flavour.
  7. Serve in deep bowls, a piece of shank and a length of marrow bone in each, scattered with spring onion, with rice and a dipping saucer of fish sauce, calamansi and crushed chilli.
  8. Substitutions: frozen batwan from a Visayan grocer can stand in for the batwan fruits.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.