Felino's Kare-Kare

Remember last Jan 24 when Ed posted the recipes of many pili nut delicacies, and I asked if he also had kare-kare recipe? It was Fely Jacobs who shared with us his recipe. I'm posting it here to become part of our Cooking Section. While looking for pictures of kare-kare in internet, I came across another recipe and decided to grab it. The pictures and recipe came from www.marketmanila.com (visit the website for a lot of other recipes). What was it that Danny cooked that I read somewhere in this blog? paki post na lang danny!

Jan 24

Bilib na ako sa variety of consulting services offered by Ed! Pati mga recipes! Meron bang recipe ng kare-kare? I love kare-kare but until now, I don't know how to cook it. Baka meron ka rin, pa share.

he he he... - toti

Para Sa Gabos Na:

Supposed to be addressed to Toti who sounded like he likes Pili roll so much but with the reply from others also the reason for the change. Pili roll is easy to prepare, I used to gorge it and buy for pasalubong every time i'm in town. I used to buy the flat pianono from Times bakery but of late i began to dislike the texture. I inquired for it from another bakery at the front of what used to be Vimar theatre, they have it but i didn't try. The filling is very easy to prepare, the secret to good quality is to load it with tons of crushed pili. Happy eating courtesy of Alot? Hello there. Next topic is the recipe of kare kare Toti asked from EdC, will beat him here. Familiar with the movie Pay It Forward? It took effect on me with EdC's huge pili recipe favor.,

KARE KARENG BUNTOT NG BAKA

1 buntot ng baka 3 talong katamtaman ang laki

1 puso ng saging 1 sibuyas

2 puno ng petsay 2 butil ng bawang

1 taling sitaw 1 litrong (maliit) mani

1 pusuwelong bigas atsuete, asin

Palambutin ang buntot ng baka sa tubig. Puwedeng samahan ng bituka, gilagid at pata ng baka kung gusto. Habang pinalalambot ang buntot ibusa ang bigas at dikdikin. Dikdikin din ang mani. Puwedeng ipalit ang peanut butter sa mani. Kapag malambot na ang buntot igisa ang bawang at sibuyas. Isabaw ang kaunting tubig na pinaglagaan ng buntot at kapag kumukulo na ay ihulog ang sitaw(4 na pulgada ang haba ng bawat putol) at puso ng saging (hiwang 2 pulgada ang haba). Kapag malasado na ang sitaw at puso ay ihalo na ang petsay(hindi na kailangang hiwain ihiwalay lamang ang tangkay) at talong (2 o 3 pulgada ang haba). Papulahin ang sabaw sa pamamagitan ng katas ng atsuete. Dagdagan pa ang sabaw at kung malapit na maluto ang lahat ng gulay isama ang buntot. Palaputin ang sabaw sa pamamagitan ng dinkdik na mani. Halu haluin hanggang ilalim pagkat baka manikit sa ilalim ang dinikdik na bigas at masunog ito. Ang sawsawan ay ginisang bagoong na alamang.

Toti, when you try this can you invite some of us to your place so we can judge the quality? Served best with some 'botels' of beer after dinner. It appears men of class 67 are one by one beginning to gravitate into the kitchen, Danny d first, Toti here now, am into it too, who else?

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from www.marketmanila.com

I read somewhere (perhaps in the Inquirer a few months back) that some folks attribute kare-kare to an Indian curry either by early migrants from India or elsewhere in Southeast Asia where Indians had moved. It is believed that the curry was adapted to locally available ingredients. There is also a view that this dish is somewhat similar to the Indonesian gado-gado and influence may have come from there as well. Whatever its provenance, we now know it’s a pinoy favorite. So I wanted to attempt to cook it. I referred to several recipes before I decided to attempt to make kare-kare. I cut and paste ingredients, methods, proportions from several of the recipes and added a dose of my views on what it should taste like to result in this recipe that can feed up to 12 hungry folks. First, make a nice flavorful broth from scratch. Put 2.5 kilos of good oxtails and about ¾ kilo beef shank on the bone in a wide bottomed pot and cover with cold water (about 2-2.5 liters). Add one chopped onion, one small rib of celery and about 15 peppercorns. Bring to a boil and let this simmer for about 2-2.5 hours or until the oxtails are quite tender. Remove the oxtails, strain out the other ingredients and reduce this broth further to say 8-9 cups of fragrant and tasty (albeit no salt) liquid. Set this aside.

Soak your achuete seeds in about 1-1.5 cups of room temperature water for 30 minutes and mash them a bit with a spoon. Strain this and discard achuete seeds, set the colored water aside. In a good food processor, blitz about a cup of white rice (uncooked) until it looks like a coarse flour. Toast this powdered rice in a dry pan over medium heat until it turns a light brown but do not burn it. Set this aside as well. Assemble your cleaned vegetables and blanch the banana blossom if you want. Cut the beans, bok choy and eggplants into nice serving sized pieces. Heat up a large pan and sauté 2 chopped white onions until soft. Add about half a tablespoon on chopped garlic and stir. Add the achuete colored water and the cooked meats and stir.

Add about 6-8 cups of the beef broth you made earlier and have it reach a boil. Add about 2/3 of your toasted rice powder, about 6-8 tablespoons of smooth peanut butter, and about ½ cup of ground freshly roasted peanuts. Add more rice powder or peanuts to taste and to your desired level of viscosity of the sauce. I found I had to add a bit more rice flour because the pot I was using was just huge… After about 10 minutes boiling and mixing together, add all the vegetables except the bok choy and simmer for another 5-7 minutes. Season generously with salt and pepper. Add the bok choy last and the juice of about 8 kalamansi and about 2 minutes later you are ready to serve it with some nice steamed rice. A condiment of cooked bagoong alamang (shrimp paste) is an absolute necessity for this dish. Without it you might as well eat something else. How did it turn out? Pretty good, if I may say so myself. It had terrific soft and flavorful meat, a less than mud-like consistency for the liquid, and a pleasant peanut taste. However, I must say this is not one of my favorites…I find it isn’t too distinctive at all. Give me a nice Indian or Thai curry any day instead. Kare-kare is always at risk of being overly sweet, lacking in flavor (other than peanut butter out of a bottle) or possessing a bizarre mouth feel. It can come across as tasting paste-y and I think it is the bagoong that makes the dish more than anything else. As always, I gravitated more to the vegetables and had just one large oxtail. Don’t misunderstand my negative streak, it was good. But I don’t think this dish will ever be great, in my opinion…