Karekare (Meat in Peanut sauce)

Karekare is one of the native recipes popular in the Philippines. Most of the time you find this recipe associated with celebrations as well as plain home style cooking in the country. You can make several variations of the recipe by changing the meat that you use for the recipe. The meat that are normally used either itself or in combination with others are so diverse like, ox tripe, beef, pork, or chicken. It ultimately depends on which you like to use. Me I find it nice to use ox tripe as it is easily available and to prepare. In my place, you can buy it in groceries already cleaned ready for cooking. This dish is unique in that it uses peanuts as major flavour contributor. The peanuts used to make the sauce traditionally were freshly roasted without the skin which is ground using a mortar or pestle however, for convenience, pureed in a food processor or a blender. Some people use unsweetened peanut butter. Peanut butter nowadays come in two types, namely one that has been pureed to very fine creamy texture while some are still with bits of nuts for that crunchy texture. I prefer to use the one with still some bits of nuts for imparting a unique texture to the food. Others use the finely pureed peanut butter and include coarse ground roasted peanuts for the improved texture. Let me share my recipe to you...

Ingredients:

1 kg Ox tripe (cleaned and ready to cook)

1 kg Pork (cut into large cubes)

1 cup Pan roasted peanuts without skin

2 tbsp. Achuote seeds

½ tsp. Iodized salt

½ tsp. Black pepper (powder)

1 tsp. Ginger (skinned and flattened by the use of a butcher knife for boiling ox tripe)

1 bulb Garlic (minced)

1 pc. Onion (medium, thinly sliced)

3 pcs. Ginger (fresh, thinly sliced, about 1 ½ tsp.)

2 tbsp. Safflower oil for sautéing

2 tbsp. Safflower oil (for extracting colour from acheoete seeds)

500 g String beans (cut into 4 in length)

2 pcs. Egg plants (cut into 1 cm thick sections)

500 g Banana flower (quartered just before cooking so that it does not darken)

1 cup Water (for boiling the ox tripe)

3 cups Water

2 tbsp. Premium dark soy sauce

Cooking Instruction:

Preparation of the ox tripe –

In a suitable pressure cooker, place the ox tripe, ginger, and water. Pressure cook for about 5-10 minutes. After the pressure cooked has cooled down, open and strain the ox tripe from the broth. Discard the broth and set aside the ox tripe. When the meat is cooled, it can then be cut up into serving sizes at this point.

Assembling the Ingredients:

Heat oil in a suitable pressure cooker and sauté garlic and onion until garlic is golden brown and onion starts to caramelize. Add the ginger, ox tripe, soy sauce, salt, black pepper, and water and pressure cook for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, turn off flame and vent to remove the pressure. Once it is safe to open, open the pressure cooker and add the pork slices. Again cover and pressure cook for an additional 10-15 minutes. Again vent the pressure and open the pressure cooker. If there is any fat on the broth, it may be skimmed off to reduce the fat content. Add the ground peanuts and stir well.

In a separate frying pan, heat oil and fry for about 30 seconds the achuote seeds to extract the colour. Add about ½ cup portion of the water in the recipe and boil. Strain the water directly into the cooking meat. Return the seeds from the strainer back to the frying pan and add again ½ cup portion of the water to extract more colour and strain the fluid to the cooking mixture. Do this one more time and add the rest of the water to the cooking mixture. Add the vegetables and again cover. Heat pressure cooker until pressure starts to vent from the valve. Turn off the flame and wait for the pressure to subside normally. Do not vent pressure as the time required to cool down for pressure to be removed normally is utilized for cooking the vegetables. You may notice that the recipe does not have too much salt so that it is slightly bland. More salt can be added to taste but for improved taste, saltiness is maintained bland and the dish is eaten with ‘bagoong’ (local salted shrimp paste that has been sautéed in garlic and onions) of which the recipe I also suggest as follows:

Bagoong

½ cup Shrimp paste

¼ cup Coconut vinegar

2 tbsp. Sugar

¼ tsp. Black pepper (powder)

1 clove Garlic (finely minced)

1 pc. Onion (medium, thinly sliced)

2 tbsp. Safflower oil

1 pc. Hot pepper (fresh siling labuyo’bird’s eye chilli variety is recommended finely minced)

Cooking Instruction

Heat oil in a frying pan and sauté the garlic and onion until garlic turns golden brown and onion starts to caramelize. Add the shrimp paste and mix well, cook for 1 minute and then add the black pepper, sugar and vinegar. Cook until liquid evaporates and desired consistency is reached. Serve with the karekare. Karekare is best had with steamed rice...

Fish Heads with Tofu and Salted Black Beans

Fish heads especially of the sea bass are nice. They have that nice gelatinous texture esteemed by some Chinese gourmets. Also, this particular fish part normally goes to waste. But I figure maybe I can make some interesting recipe out of them. So here goes...

Ingredients:

500 g Grouper fish heads (about 2 pieces)

250 g Tofu (cut into rectangular blocks)

1 tbsp. Black Beans

1 tbsp. Oyster sauce

¼ tsp. Black pepper (ground)

2 pcs. Ginger (fresh thinly sliced)

4 pcs. Garlic (minced)

1 pc. Onion (small, cut into thin slices)

1 tbsp. Mirin

½ tsp. Chiu Chow chilli oil

3 tbsp. Premium dark soy sauce

½ cup Water

1 tsp. Cornstarch (heaping)

3 tbsp. Water (for suspending cornstarch)

1 tsp. Sesame oil

4 tbsp. Safflower oil (for frying tofu and fish)

1 tbsp. Safflower oil (for sautéing)

Cooking Procedure:

Heat oil in suitable Teflon coated frying pan. Fry tofu until all sides are golden brown. Set aside. Fry the fish head in the hot oil until browned and set aside too. In another sauce pan, heat oil and sauté the garlic and onion until garlic are golden brown and onion starts to caramelize. Add the ginger, fried tofu, and the fish. Add the water, soy sauce, black beans, Mirin and chilli oil. Simmer for approximately 15 min under low heat (Until the eyes of the fish pops out which means that it is already done just right). At this point if more saltiness is desired, salt can be added. Otherwise the natural salt from the soy and other ingredients will be just enough.

In a suitable bowl, place the cornstarch and water. Stir to ensure that cornstarch is well dispersed. Add the oyster sauce and sesame oil and mix well. Add to the fish and stir by gently swirling the contents of the pan. Cook until the starch is cooked and sauce has nice consistency. It is important not to overcook when sesame oil is already added less the flavour deteriorates. Serve with rice...

Chicken with Tofu and Black Beans

As I have mentioned earlier in my previous recipes, tofu is very versatile ingredient. You can use it in a variety of ways. Not only that. It imparts that nice delicate flavour and texture to food too. Check this quick recipe with chicken.

Ingredients:

500 g Chicken thigh fillets cut into large strips

250 g Tofu cut into large rectangles

1 tsp. Black beans

1 tsp. Garlic (minced)

1 pc. Onion (minced)

¼ tsp. Black pepper (powder)

3 tbsp. Premium dark soy sauce

2 pc. Ginger (thinly sliced, about 1 tsp.)

¾ cup Water

1 tbsp. Mirin

2 tbsp. Safflower oil (for sautéing)

2 tbsp. Safflower oil (for frying tofu)

1 tsp. Cornstarch

4 tbsp. Water (for suspending starch)

Cooking Instruction:

Heat oil in Teflon coated frying pan and fry both sides of the tofu until golden brown. Set aside tofu.

Heat oil in a saucepan and sauté the garlic and onion until garlic is golden brown and onion starts to caramelize. Add the ginger and chicken and stir fry for about 2 minutes at high heat and 3 minutes in medium heat. Add the black beans and mirin and stir. Add the tofu and water and turn up flame to high heat to start the water to boil. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes. If volume of water still exceeds about ½ cup, turn up heat and uncover to reduce the sauce to desired volume. In a small bowl, place the cornstarch and add water. Mix well to suspend starch evenly. Add to the cooking mixture and continue simmering until starch is cooked. Serve over rice or with steamed plain buns...