Bicol Express

Bicol Express Ingredients:

1/4 kilo pork, thinly sliced

1 cup Baguio beans

3 cups long chili or jalapeno peppers

1 onion, minced
1 head of garlic, minced
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup coconut cream
2 tablespoons of cooking oil

Salt to taste

Bicol Express Cooking Instructions:

In a bowl of water with salt, soak chili peppers for 30 minutes then rinse and strain.

In a cooking pan, heat cooking oil and brown sliced pork for a few minutes.
In another pan, sauté minced garlic and onion.
Add to the sauté the browned pork.
Then add the coconut milk, bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the chili peppers, Baguio beans and cook until dish gets a little dry.Add the coconut cream and simmeruntil the sauce thickens. Salt to taste.

Paella Valenciana

Takes 30 to 45 minutes
Cooks about an hour
Makes 15 to 17 servings

Ingredients:

1 kilo chicken , cut into small pieces
Juice from 3 pieces calamansi
½ kilo pork kasim (round), cubed
¼ cup cooking oil
½ kilo white onions, diced
1 cup tomato sauce
1 red & green bell pepper, diced
315 g chorizo Bilbao
¼ kilo cooked ham, cubed
1 pinch saffron
1 kilo medium-size white shrimps
calamansi juice
1 cup pure olive oil
5 cloves garlic, crushed into a paste
2 cups uncooked Calrose rice
salt and pepper
1 red & green bell pepper, cut into long triangle shapes

Cooking Instructions:

1. Marinate the chicken in calamansi juice.
2. In a pan, heat some oil then brown the chicken and pork. Set aside.
3. Add some olive oil to the pan and cook the onions until tender. Add tomato sauce then the ham, chicken and pork, diced peppers, chorizo, and saffron. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
4. Remove the pork and put in a separate pan. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Cook until tender.
5. Strain the sautéed mixture to separate the paella liquid from the fillings. Remove the chorizo and cut into ¼ inch rounds. Add back to the mixture together with the cooked pork. Save the cooking liquid of the pork and add to the paella liquid.
6. Cook 8 whole shrimps in a pan with 7 pieces sliced calamansi and some water. Cook only until the shrimps turn pink but are tender.
7. Marinate the rest of the peeled shrimps in calamansi juice. Set aside.
Preheat the over to 250°F.
8. In a pan, heat some olive oil and brown the mashed garlic.
9, Put the garlic in a 15-inch paellera. Add the Calrose rice and ¼ cup olive oil. Mix well, making sure that each grain is coated with oil.
10. Set the paellera over high heat on the stove. Pour in 2 cups of the paella liquid. Cook over high heat for 5 minutes, moving the paellera and stirring the rice around to distribute the heat.
11. Wait until the rice has absorbed some of the liquid before adding ¾ cup more of the liquid. Stir and allow more liquid to be absorbed.
12, Transfer the paellera into the preheated oven. Allow the rice to cook 10 minutes covered. Add more liquid if necessary.
13. Open the oven door, and pull out the paellera slightly. Add the paella filling into the rice mixture piece by piece. Do not stir again.
14. Add more liquid and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes; or until the rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed.
T15. op the paella with the peeled white shrimps. Cover the pan allowing the shrimps to cook until they are pink but still tender. Add more liquid if necessary.
16. Top the paella with whole shrimps and pepper slices. Cover again and cook no more than 5 minutes.
17. Remove from the heat and allow to rest 10 minutes covered before serving.
source: pinoy recipe.net

Kare Kare

A traditional Tagalog dish, Kare-Kare is a Filipino party favorite. It is made with oxtail, beef tripe(tuwalya) and vegetables cooked in thickened peanut gravy.

The dish is yellow-orange in color and is made by using the hot oil steeped with achuete or annatto seeds. The sauce is flavored with ground peanuts and thickened by rice grains that have been toasted and powdered.

Kare-Kare is served with sauteed shrimp paste(bagoong). It’s a perfect dish to pair with Crispy Pata (deep fried Pork Knuckles).

Nowadays, you can make this dish vegetarian or even seafood style. And also, I think it’s more practical to use peanut butter instead of toasting and grounding the peanuts.

The oxtails take a long time to tenderize if you use the conventional simmering method. So I cook the oxtails in the pressure cooker. Then, I skim the fat off.

The same is true with the tripe, which is the lining of the cow’s first and second stomachs. Tripe is as challenging to cook as the oxtail. The tripe needs to be cleaned and blanched thoroughly and it must be cooked for hours to make it tender and edible.

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YOUR KARE-KARE SHOPPING LIST:

• Oxtail



• Beef Tripe(Tuwalya)(optional)



• Peanut Butter



• Achuete or Annatto Seeds



• Eggplants



• Banana Bud or Heart(Puso ng Saging)(optional)



• String Beans



• Bok Choy or Chinese Cabbage(Pechay)



• Beef Broth

IN THE PANTRY:

• Garlic



• Onion



• Salt



• Sugar



• Rice Grains



• Pepper



• Sauteed Shrimp Paste(Bagoong Alamang)



• Cooking Oil

INGREDIENTS

• 2 pounds Oxtail, cut in 1″ thickness



• 1 pound beef tripe,(Tuwalya) cut into 2″ squares (optional)



• 1/2 pound string beans, sliced in 3″ lengths



• 2 pcs. eggplants, sliced in 3″ wedges



• 1 banana bud or heart(puso ng saging), sliced in strips(optional)



• 6 stalks Bok Choy(Pechay), leaves and stalk separated, cut in 2″ length



• 1/2 cup peanut butter, dissolved in 1 cup beef broth



• 1/4 cup toasted rice, powdered, dissolved in 1/2 cup beef broth



• 5 cups beef broth (total)



• 2 tablespoons achuete (annatto) seeds



• 1/4 cup cooking oil



• 3 cloves garlic, minced



• 1 medium onion, chopped



• 1 tablespoon salt



• 1 tablespoon sugar



• 1/4 teaspoon pepper



• Sauteed Shrimp Paste(Bagoong Alamang)

PREPARATION TIME : 20 minutes

COOKING TIME : 30 minutes
(pre-cooking the oxtail and beef tripe not included)

1 Heat up the oil, then put in the achuete seeds for a couple minutes until the oil becomes deep red. Strain out the seeds.

2Saute the garlic and onion using the achuete oil, then add the oxtail and beef tripe, salt, pepper, sugar, beef broth and the dissolved-peanut butter. Bring to a boil.

3 Turn the heat down, and put the vegetables(except the Bok Choy leaves) into the sauce. Cover and cook for approximately 10 minutes or until the vegetables are done.

4 Add the dissolved rice flour into the sauce to thicken.

5 Add the Bok Choy leaves. Cook for another minute and it’s ready to serve.

6 Serve with rice along with a side of Sauteed Shrimp Paste(Bagoong Alamang).

COOK’S TIPS

The achuete oil can stain tile counters so be careful not to spill or splatter any oil. Although bleach can remove the stain, you may want to test it first to make sure it will not affect the color of the tiles.If string beans and Bok Choy are unavailable, substitute green beans for the string beans and spinach for the Bok Choy. The difference is negligible and the flavor of the dish will not be affected.

I like a hint of sweetness for my Kare-kare so I add a tablespoon of sugar. If you are using a sweet peanut butter, you can omit the sugar.

To cut some of the preparation time, try looking for Powdered Annato (Achuete) and Toasted Rice Flours which are readily available in the Asian Markets. They come in small packages with their equivalent Vietnamese or Thai names on the labels.

Is this recipe a little too much work for you? If so, you can simplify it by using the Stew Base Mix for Kare-Kare that you can buy at any Asian store. I suggest, though, to try making it from scratch at least once, and compare the difference in taste.

*source for recipe text-filipino-food-recipes.com