Kare-kare

Kare-kare is one of my favorite feast dishes that we prepare in the Philippines.  It is basically a stew of beef cooked in peanut butter and ground rice with some vegetables.  Traditionally, all the ingredients are prepared and done tediously to cook this dish.  I remember in my auntie’s house all my cousins would help out in pounding the peanuts and the rice.  Helas, those were the days.  Now, are everything are done in short cut way: you can either buy a ready made kare kare mix or buy in the market the pounded peanuts and rice.  But nonetheless, this dish is truly worth trying!

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo of beef round or sirloin cut into cubes

1/2 kilo of oxtail 2 to 3 inches long

you can also add up some beef tripes if you wish

1/2 cup of peanut butter

1/4 cup of grinded toasted rice

2 big onions quartered

2 tablespoon of atsuete dissolved in hot water (you can replace this with orange food coloring)

2 liters of water

some salt and pepper

for the vegetables:

one cup of cut sitaw (string beans)

3 bunches of petsay leaves (bokchoy)

3 egg plants cut

1 young banana bud sliced

Procedure:

In a crock pot or pressure cooker, put all the meat , salt, pepper, onion and fill this with water. Cover and let it boil and simmer for about an hour and a half or until the meat are tender and cook. In a separate pan, put some cooking oil and fry lightly all the vegetables to give it a crispy and bright color. You don’t need to cook the vegetables. You just need to fry them for about five minutes each. Put all these vegetables ona larger pot and pour the meat stock you have. Cover and let it simmer for about ten minutes. In a separate bowl dissolve the peanut butter, grinded toasted rice with half a cup of stock from the pot. Mix them well until there is no more part that is lumpy. Pour this on the pot boiling with the vegetables. Add your dissolved coloring. Top this with the cooked meat and turn off the fire. Serve this dish with some sautéed bagoong (shrimp paste).

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Tagged: beef, Beef kare kare, bokchoy, kare-kare, onion, oxtail, peanut butter, petsay, sitaw, trip