Kalderetang Baka Recipe (Beef Kaldereta)

Estimated cooking time: 1 1/2 to 2 hours

Beef Kaldereta Ingredients:

• 1 kilo beef, cut into chunks

• 1 big can (350g) liver spread or ground liver

• 5 onions, minced

• 5 cloves garlic, minced

• 6 tomatoes, sliced

• 1 cup tomato sauce

• 3 green peppers, diced

• 3 red peppers, diced

• 4 pieces hot chilli peppers, minced

• 3/4 cup grated cheese

• 2 cups beef stock or water

• 1/4 cup cooking or olive oil

Kaldereta Cooking Instructions:

• In a casserole, sauté: garlic and onions in oil. Then add tomatoes, red & green pepper and chilli peppers.

• Add in the beef, tomato sauce, liver spread and water or stock. Salt to taste and let simmer for at least 1 hour or until the beef is tender.

• Add cheese and olives (optional) and continue to simmer until the sauce thickens.

• Serve with plain rice

Cooking Tips:

• Instead of beef, goat’s meat (kambing) can be used. If goat’s meat is used, marinate the meat in vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper for at least 15 minutes.

• For a special kaldereta, do not use water or beef stock. Use an equivalent weight of onions to the beef (1 kg of onions : 1 kg of beef). The onions will serve as water to the dish.

Chicken Inasal Recipe

Preparation & marinating: 6 hours to overnight
Estimated cooking time: 40 minutes

Chicken Inasal Ingredients:

• 2 Chickens (free range if available)

• 3/4 cup Filipino vinegar
  

• 1/4 cup Garlic finely minced
  

• 2 stalks Lemon grass optional

• Salt

• Annatto oil (see notes below)
  

• Wooden skewers
  

• Spiced vinegar

• Additional Ingredients Instructions:

• 2 free-range chickens, approx. 3 pounds each, or if you can find smaller chickens, use 3 of them

• 3/4 cup Filipino vinegar, palm if you can find it, or cane; or if you must, the equivalent in kalamansi juice (available in the frozen aisle of your Asian market if you don’t have access to fresh)
• 1/4 cup garlic, minced very finely, or better yet, mashed into a paste with 2 teaspoons sea salt
• achuete or annatto oil, made by steeping 1/4 cup annatto seeds in 1/2 cup hot oil for half an hour (If not available, you may mix a small amount of paprika and tumeric to achieve the same color.)
• thick wooden skewers, soaked for 1 hour in water prior to cooking
• Bottled spiced vinegar for serving, or make your own by mixing Filipino vinegar, lots of crushed garlic, a bit of salt, and a handful of Thai peppers or other tiny red hot peppers

Chicken Inasal Cooking Instructions:

• Quarter the chickens, or if using the small ones, halve them. Marinate in the vinegar, garlic and salt, several hours or overnight, turning several times.
• Preheat grill to 350 degrees. Make sure your grill is cleaned and oiled well. Cook over indirect heat for 20 minutes, basting with the achuete oil.
• Turn and cook for 10-15 minutes more, or until thickest parts of chicken exude clear juices when pierced. Can also be made in a grill pan on the stove if no outside barbecue is available.
• Serve immediately with the spiced vinegar. Other welcome additions to the vinegar: some soy sauce or fish sauce if you like, or even some minced ginger.

Variations:

• Another technique we’ve found to work well, is to heat the oil in which the annatto is to be steeped, and to steep the garlic (and lemon grass if using) together with the seeds. This ensures a more even distribution of flavors. Just remember to discard this mixture when you’re done with the cooking, as you risk botulism from the garlic. Or, if you want to make it ahead of time, be sure to refrigerate the oil to retard any toxins from developing.
• If your chicken is particularly fatty, you could render the fat slowly in a skillet, and use that instead of cooking oil to steep the annatto seeds. In which case, you’ll want to have enough not only for basting but also for serving later, as there’s nothing more appetizing than chicken inasal drizzled with this orange concoction.

Pork Sinigang Recipe

Estimated cooking and preparation time: 1 hour

Pork Sinigang Ingredients:

• 3/4 kilo Pork, cut into chunks

• 3 tomatoes, sliced

• 2 onions, diced

• 5 cloves of garlic, minced

• 100 grams Kangkong (river spinach)

• 100 grams String beans

• 2 pieces horse radishes, sliced

• 3 pieces gabi (taro), pealed

• 200 grams sampalok (tamarind)

• 3 tablespoons of patis (fish sauce)

• 1 liter of rice wash or water

Sinigang Cooking Instructions:

• Boil sampalok in water until the shell shows cracks. Let cool then peal off the shells and with a strainer, pour samplalok (including water) into a bowl. Gently massage the sampalok meat off the seeds, strain again.
• In a pot, sauté garlic and onion then add the tomatoes. Let simmer for 5 minutes.
• Add pork and fish sauce then add the rice wash. Bring to a boil then simmer for 15 minutes then add the gabi. Continue to simmer for another 15 minutes or until the pork is tender.
• Add the horse radish, simmer for 10 minutes then add the string beans and kangkong. Let boil for 2 minutes.
• Serve piping hot.

Sinigang Cooking Tip:

Instead of sampalok fruit (tamarind), you can substitute it with any commercial souring seasoning like Knorr sampalok seasoning or tamarind bouillon cubes for this pork sinigang recipe.

Pork Menudo Recipe

Estimated preparation & cooking time: 50 minutes

Menudo Ingredients:

• 1/2 kilo pork (cut into small chunks)

• 1/4 kilo pork liver (cut into small cubes)

• 5 pieces chorizo Bilbao (also cut in small pieces)

• 4 potatoes (peeled, cut in small cubes, fried)

• 1 green and 1 red bell pepper (diced)

• 1 cup chickpeas

• 1/4 cup raisins

• 1/2 teaspoon paprika

• 1 cup pork or chicken stock

• 2 teaspoons of patis (fish sauce)

• 3 tablespoons oil

• 1 tablespoon atsuete oil (optional)

• 3 tomatoes (diced)

• 1 small head of garlic (minced)

• 1 medium size onion (diced)

Menudo Cooking Instructions:

• In a pan or wok, heat cooking oil and atsuete oil.

• Saute garlic, onion. Then add the pork, liver, chorizo de Bilabo, tomatoes, bell pepper, paprika, patis and the stock.

• Cover and bring to a boil. Simmer for 20 minutes or until the pork is tender.

• Add the chickpeas, potatoes and raisins. Boil of another 2 minutes.

• Salt and pepper to taste.

• Serve hot with white rice.

Chopsuey Recipe

Estimated cooking & preparation time: 45 minutes.

Chopsuey Ingredients:

• 1/4 kilo pork, sliced into small pieces

• 1/4 kilo shrimps, shelled, deveined and halved

• 1/4 kilo chicken liver and gizzard, sliced to small pieces

• 1/4 kilo cauliflower, broken to bite size

• 1/4 kilo string beans

• 1/4 kilo snow peas (sitsaro)

• 1/4 kilo cabbage, cut into squares

• 2 stalks of leeks, cut into 2″ long pieces

• 3 stalks celery, cut into 2″ long pieces

• 5 cloves garlic, diced

• 2 onions, diced

• 1 carrot, sliced thinly

• 1 piece red bell pepper, cut in strips

• 1 piece green bell pepper. cut in strips

• 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, dissolved in 1/4 cup of water

• 2 cups chicken stock (broth)

• 3 tablespoons of sesame oil

• 3 tablespoons of patis (fish sauce)

• 4 tablespoons of corn oil or vegetable oil

• Salt to taste

Chopsuey Cooking Instructions:

• In a big pan or wok, sauté garlic, onions then add in the pork. chicken liver and gizzard. Add 1 cup of stock, pinch of salt and simmer for 15 minutes or until pork and chicken giblets are cooked.

• Mix in the shrimp then all the vegetables. Add the remaining 1 cup of stock, patis and the dissolved cornstarch. Cook for about 10 minutes or until the vegetables are done. Add the sesame oil.

• Salt and pepper to taste.

• Serve hot with rice

Chicken Afritada Recipe

Estimated cooking time: 50 minutes

Chicken Afritada Ingredients:

• 1 kilo chicken, cut into pieces

• 5 pieces potatoes, peeled and halved

• 1 red onion, diced

• 1 head garlic, minced

• 1 green bell pepper, sliced into strips

• 1 red bell pepper, sliced into strips

• 2 cups pork or chicken stock (broth)

• 1 cup tomato sauce

• 2 tablespoons of patis (fish sauce)

• 3 tablespoons of cooking oil

Chicken Afritada Cooking Instructions:

• In a cooking pot or wok, heat oil.

• Sauté garlic and onions.

• Add chicken and slightly brown.

• Pour the tomato sauce and stock. Bring to a boil and allow to simmer for 20 minutes or until the chicken is almost cooked.

• Add potatoes and continue to cook for 10 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked.

• Add the green and red bell peppers, simmer for an additional minute or two.

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Serve hot with rice.

Leche Flan Recipe

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Estimated cooking time: 1 hour

Leche Flan Ingredients:

• 1 can (390g) evaporated milk

• 1 can (390g) condensed milk

• 10 egg yolks

• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or lemon essence

For the caramel:

• 1 cup sugar

• 3/4 cup water

Leche Flan Cooking Instructions:

• In a saucepan, mix the sugar & water. Bring to a boil for a few minutes until the sugar caramelize.

• Pour the caramelized sugar into aluminum moulds – you can use any shape: oval, round or square. Spread the caramel on the bottom of the moulds.

• Mix well the evaporated milk, condensed milk, egg yolks and vanilla by hand or blender.

• Gently pour the mixture on top of the caramel on the aluminum moulds. Fill the moulds to about 1 to 1 1/4 inch thick.

• Cover moulds individually with aluminum foil.

• Steam for about 20 minutes OR

• Bake for about 45 minutes. Before baking the Leche Flan, place the moulds on a larger baking pan half filled with very hot water. Pre-heat oven to about 370 degrees before baking.

• Let cool then refrigerate.

• To serve: run a thin knife around the edges of the mould to loosen the Leche Flan. Place a platter on top of the mould and quickly turn upside down to position the golden brown caramel on top.

Cooking Tips:

You can tell when the Leche Flan is cooked by inserting a knife -if it comes out clean, it is cooked.