Name: Hen’omby Ritra : Malagasy Braised Beef
Prep time: 10 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Malagasy Food
Ingredients: Beef (or Zebu): 500 to 600g; Onion: 1; Garlic Cloves: 2; Ginger Powder: To your taste; Vegetable oil: 3 tablespoons; Water: 250ml; Salt: To your taste

Cuisine:

Malagasy Food

2h30
Serves 4
Easy

Ingredients

500 to 600g
Beef (or Zebu)
or other fatty meat
1
Onion
2
Garlic Cloves
To your taste
Ginger Powder
3 tablespoons
Vegetable oil
250ml
Water
To your taste
Salt

Directions

Votes: 3

Hen’omby ritra is a typical dish of Madagascar. It is a delicious recipe of melting beef with onions, tomato and garlic, all cooked for a long time and over a low heat. The recipe of Hen’omby Ritra has few ingredients and is quite simple to make. The most important thing is to respect a slow and soft cooking to have a juicy and very melting meat.

Hen’omby Ritra is one of the unavoidable specialties of Madagascar! You will find it literally in all the local restaurants!

This recipe can also be made with pork or poultry!

Table of Contents

Hen’omby Ritra: origin of this Malagasy recipe

The name of this recipe comes from Malagasy. “Omby” means zebu (beef) and “Hena” means meat. The word “ritra” means “dry or exhausted”. Because one of the particularities of this recipe is that all the water is evaporated so that the meat is very dry (but tender).

Some tips to make a successful homemade Hen’omby Ritra:

Choose a fairly fatty meat, the more fatty your meat is the better the taste of your Hen’omby Ritra will be. If your meat is rather lean, do not hesitate to add vegetable oil. Your meat will be more melting. The ideal is to use Zebu meat, which is an ancestor of beef.
Use only one or two tomatoes maximum.
If you can, use charcoal cooking for more flavor. In this case, it is preferable to put very little water at the beginning of cooking and to add some from time to time until the meat is quite tender.

How to accompany Hen’omby Ritra ?

You can accompany this braised beef dish with rice, tomato rougail and a bit of chili pepper if you eat chili! You can also serve it with carrots or steamed potatoes.

Steps

1 Done 10min	Cooking the meat Cut your beef (preferably Zebu) into coarse pieces of about 3-4cm. Heat some oil in a pan and grill the meat with a little salt.
2 Done 1h	Once the meat is well colored, cover with water and simmer over medium-low heat for about 1 hour until the water has evaporated and the meat is quite tender. If the meat is already tender but there is still some water, don't hesitate to increase the heat.
3 Done 30min	Chop your tomato, onions and garlic cloves. Add a glass of water and add the tomato, garlic and minced onion. Simmer for another 30 minutes.
4 Done	After 30 minutes of cooking, there should be a little water left which will make up the sauce of your Henomby Ritra. Your beef should be very tender.
5 Done	Your home-made Hen'omby Ritra is ready! The turn is played! You've made a delicious Malagasy Hen'omby Ritra at home! Serve it with white rice, tomato rougail and a little chilli. Enjoy your meal!