Kare-Kare Recipe
Kare-Kare is a thick, flavorful peanut sauce-based Philippine dish. It’s usually cooked with stewed oxtail, beef tripe, pork hocks, calves’ feet, pig’s feet or trotters, various types of pork, beef stew meat, and offal as a base. Eggplant, Chinese cabbage, other greens, daikon, green beans, okra, and asparagus beans are among the vegetables used. Ground roasted peanuts or peanut butter, onions, and garlic flavor the stew. It’s colored with annatto and thickened with toasted or plain milled rice. Kare-Kare can be cooked with seafood like prawns, squid, and mussels, or it can be made entirely of veggies.
Kare-Kare versions
Kare-Kare comes in a variety of forms. The most significant distinction between them is the meat element. We now know that oxtail is the traditional protein for this dish. Tripe is another useful component. Other types of meat, as well as seafood, are used in some variations.
What is Beef Kare-Kare? Beef Kare-Kare is what the traditional form is called. This mostly applies to variants that employ beef cuts.
What is Seafood Kare Kare? Seafood includes shrimp, crab, mussels, and squid. There is a recipe that includes all of these items.
What is Pata Kare-kare? Pig leg or pork hock is referred to as pata. After oxtail, it is the most common ingredient. This cut of meat is popular since it is less expensive than beef and pairs nicely with other components.
How to Cook Kare Kare
Tenderize the meat, make the sauce, and preparing the veggies are the three essential steps.
Boil the meat with the chopped onion to prepare it. This will tenderize the meat while also giving a taste. For best results, oxtail should be very delicate. When using the traditional method, it takes about 3 hours to boil. A pressure cooker is a faster option. Cooking time is reduced by more than half.
The peanut sauce has the power to make or shatter a dish. To create the right consistency of the sauce, it is critical to have the proper ingredient ratio. It should not be excessively thick or thin. I create the sauce using both peanut butter and crushed peanuts. It gives it a strong flavor. The sauce is reddish in hue thanks to the annatto seeds. You’ll need to soak the seed in warm water for around 12 minutes to remove the color. The colored water, not the seed, is utilized to produce the dish. After using the seed, throw it away. Toasted ground rice thickens the sauce.
Kare kare is made up primarily of vegetables. It can be cooked alongside the meat or added just before serving. I decided to sauté the vegetables separately with garlic.
Cooking Tips
To tenderize the oxtail rapidly, use a pressure cooker. It takes me 30 minutes to get the same effect as the old method, which takes roughly 3 hours.
When utilizing the traditional method of boiling, keep an eye on the amount of water. Add extra water as needed until the meat is thoroughly soft.
The dish’s main ingredient is bagoong alamang, or shrimp paste. It should be completely cooked before serving.
Kare-Kare Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Large Pot
- 1 Pan
- 1 Serving Bowl
Ingredients
- 3 lbs oxtail cut in 2 inch slices you an also use tripe or beef slices
- 1 bundle pechay or bok choy
- 1 piece small banana flower bud sliced
- 1 bundle string beans cut into 2 inch slices
- 4 pieces eggplants sliced
- 1 cup ground peanuts
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup shrimp paste
- 34 Ounces water about 1 Liter
- 1/2 cup annatto seeds soaked in a cup of water
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- 1/2 cup toasted ground rice
- salt and pepper
- 1 piece onion chopped
Instructions
- In a large pot, bring the water to a boil
- Simmer for 2.5 to 3 hours or until the oxtail is soft, then add the onions (35 minutes if using a pressure cooker)
- Cook for 5 to 7 minutes after adding the ground peanuts, peanut butter, and coloring (water from the annatto seed mixture).
- Add the toasted ground rice and simmer for 5 minutes
- Sauté the garlic in a separate pan before adding the banana flower, eggplant, and string beans and cooking for 5 minutes.
- Place the cooked vegetables in a big pot (where the rest of the ingredients are)
- Add salt and pepper to taste
- Serve hot with shrimp paste. Enjoy!