Kare kare, oxtail and peanut stew

Kare-kare is a Filipino stew with a thick savory peanut sauce. It can be made from a stock made with different types meats and parts of the cow, but it is common to just use oxtail and a mix of vegetables. This stew is flavored with ground roasted peanuts and peanut butter, onions, garlic and shrimp paste(bagoong). It is colored with annatto (extracted from annatto seeds in oil or water) and can be thickened with toasted sticky or plain ground rice. Its name derived from the word “kari” from the word “curry”. However, kare-kare is far different from Indian curry. Kare-kare has a similar flavor to satay because of the peanuts in the sauce.

There are several stories to the origins of kare-kare. The first one is that it came from Pampanga. Kare-kare is a well-known dish in Pampanga, which is often hailed as the culinary capital of the Philippines. Another has it coming from the regal dishes of the Moro (muslims) who settled in Manila pre Spanish colonization. Another is from Sepoy conscripts from Southern India that settled in Philippines during the British occupation of Manila 1762-1764. Longing for their home cooking, they improvised and used available ingredients. They called it kari-kaari, curry, and now, kare-kare.

Some enjoy this with extra shrimp paste on the side. With their spoon they take a spoon full of stew and rice, then a tiny bit of the shrimp paste to give it a bit of umami. To be honest it is a bit too much umami for my taste.

Dinner for 4:

3 lbs oxtail
1 large chopped onion
Water to cover the meat in your pot
2,5 dl peanuts, ground
1 dl sticky rice toasted and ground
1 tsp anatto oil or powder
1 tsp minced garlic
1 banana bud, peel and separate the banana flowers and slice the rest thin
bok choy
string beans
1 tsp shrimp paste(optional)and salt and pepper to taste

4 servings of rice

 

Brown the meat in a pot, add the onion and cover the oxtail and onions with water. Bring to a boil,urn down the heat and let it simmer for 2.5 to 3 hrs or until tender.

Once the meat is tender, add the ground peanuts, peanut butter, ground sticy rice and annatto simmer for 5 to 7 minutes.
In a separate pan, saute the garlic then add the banana flower, bok choi and string beans and cook 5 minutes
Transfer the vegetables to the large pot, add shrimp paste, salt and pepper to taste.
Serve hot with rice and enjoy this with shrimp paste or not:D

Pumpkin and shrimps in Coconut milk, ginataang kalabasa na may sugpo

Ginataan

My mum has been visiting and she came with me shopping and saw the pumpkin and the shrimps in the store and wanted to make one of her favorite dishes. Pumpkin and shrimps coconut stew or as it is called in the Philippines, Ginataang kalabasa na may sugpo.

1 chopped onion
4 cloves minced garlic
2 tbsp minced fresh ginger
3 chilis or more or less depending on how hot you want it.
1 can coconut milk
1 box coconut cream
1 small pumpkin remove seeds, peel and cube
1 kilo large shrimps
3-4 Bok choy bouquets
1-2 tbsp fish sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion, garlic, ginger and chili in a pot until soft and fragrant.

Add coconut milk, coconut cream and pumpkin cubes and bring to a boil.

Turn down the heat and let it simmer until the pumpkin is getting soft, then add the shrimps and let it simmer about 5 minutes before you add the bok choy.

Add fish sauce, salt and pepper to taste.

When the bok choy is starting to wilt the stew is ready.

Serve with rice.

Mung bean and coconut stew with centella

The past few weeks I have posted a couple of mung bean stews, one that I grew up with(see recipe HERE) and one with lechon leftovers(see recipe HERE), this time I am making an all vegan mung bean caserolle with coconut milk. In the traditional filipino dish you use malunggay leaves for this dish, but this time I had some centella leaves so I used that instead.

Centella is used as a leafy green in Sri Lankan cuisine. In Vietnam and Thailand, this leaf is used for preparing a drink or can be eaten in raw form in salads. These leaves are considered quite nutritious. The leaves has also been used as a medicinal herb in Ayurvedic medicine and traditional Chinese medicine, and it is also known as the Asiatic pennywort.

When my cousin heard I was making this she said that I should add Jack fruit. Funny thing, because I have read that in Sri Lankan cuisine they use centella in a coconut curry with Jack fruit. I am unfortunately allergic to Jack fuit, so no Jack fruit in this dish, but a little curry paste would be tempting.

2 cups mung beans

1 tablespoon oil

1 finely chopp onion

2 cloves minced garlic

1 tbsp freshly grated ginger

1-2 tsp chili flakes

1,2 l vegetable broth

1 can coconut milk

1-2  tbsp fish sauce

1 bunch centella

Salt and pepper to taste

 

Wash mung beans thoroughly and strain. Soak beans in water and stir, remove floating particles.

In a saucepan, sauté garlic, onion and ginger in a pot until soft and fragrant, add the chili flakes and give it a stir.

Add the broth, coconut milk and the rinsed mung beans and bring to a boil.

Turn the heat down and simmer, stir occasionally until beans are tender about 40-50 minutes.

Right before you serve add the centella leaves to let them wilt a little.

 

Munggo with lechon

 

My cousine have never made mung bean stew when I come over for a bite to eat, because she knew that I used to hate it, but last time I went to visit her she hade made a pot of the stew. I read on your blog that you like munggo now, so I made some.

Wow, this was a munggo dish I never tried befor. My cousin had made this stew with Lechon left overs and it tasted heavenly, had I had this type of mung bean stew when I was younger I would have liked it a  lot more. HERE is the recipe for the mung bean stew I have been used to.

You make this stew the same way you make the traditional stew, but with roasted pig that you call lechon in the Philippines. As greens this time I have used Corchorus known as Saluyot in the Philippines. Rumor has it that this herb is one of Cleopatras anti wrinkle remedies, you can read about it HERE.

1  cup Mung beans

1 tbsp minced garlic

chilipepper flakes for heat if you want

300-500 g Lechon left overs( use what you have)

1 medium-sized tomato, chopped

1 medium-sized onion, chopped

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 liter water(for boiling) if you want this more like a soup add more water

1 pc pork/beef cube or 1 teaspoon beef stock(for flavoring)

1-2 cups chopped or pulled malunggay leaves (or spinach)

salt and pepper to taste

Wash mung beans thoroughly and strain.

Soak beans in water and stir. Remove floating particles.

In a saucepan sauté onion, garlic and pepper flakes, add lechon and chopped tomatoes.

Pour in beans with water, add stock cube and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium heat and simmer, stir occasionally until beans are tender about 30-40 minutes.

Right before serving add the saluyot leaves, do not boil the leaves, they will become very slimy.

Slow cooking short ribs while playing in the snow.

Me: You have to help me out, I need to take a few pictures of kids, snow and cooking.

Brother: Sure I just need to ask her mum if it is alright that you take pictures of her.

So off we went playing in the snow by the beach, while the base for the evenings dinner was simmering on the stove.
Slow cooking meats for stews is easy, just let everything simmer for a long time while you do other things, the result is flavourful and tender.  This time I have used short ribs and a few vegetables to make a hearty meal to look forward to after a long day out in the cold.

This can also be the base for many other dishes, like pie or maybe pulled beef.

Basic stock

1,5 kg/3 lb short ribs

Butter for browning

1 medium onion cut in four

2 carrots cut in four

1 parley root cut in four

3-4 Bay leafs

1 tsp whole Peppercorns

1-2 tps salt

1-2 twig of rosemary

Water

 

Brown ribs in butter in a pan.

Combine browned short ribs and the rest of the ingredients in a large pot. The water should barely cover all the ingredients.

Cook until it barely boils, turn down the heat to low, cover and leave for at least 5 hours.

Go do something else, clean the house or play.

When the meat is done and tender, take the pieces out and put them on a plate and cover.

Strain the liquid and save for later.

Pick out the vegetables, be carefull because they are very tender, rinse them off and put aside.

 

For the dish depicted on top I used the ingredients above plus:

2 cups carrot cubes

1 cup Celeriac cubes

1 cup Swede cubes

Green beans

Rosemary twigs

 

In a pot combine the root vegetables and cover with the broth you just made.

Bring to a boil and let it simmer untill the vegetables are tender.

I used the overcooked vegetables from the stock to thicken the broth, mash the vegetables before you add them to the pot with the root vegetables.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Add the short ribs in the pot to heat them up again

Clean and cut the green beans and saute them in a pan with butter and a twig of rosemary.

Eat this with some nice bread.

 

We had a little picnic by the beach close to the cabin and enjoyed some hot chai spiced cocoa and grilled some twist bread with herbs and cheese.

I took the pictures for my first ever feature in a magasine, a norwegian lifestyle magasine called Feelgood.

Kimchi jjiggae, Kimchi stew, 김치찌개

 

Kimchi jjiggae  is one of the most popular all the stews in Korean cuisine and is made from mature kimchi, tofu, and meat or seafood. It is a warm, hearty, spicy and savory dish. When ever we were out eating korean bbq we often got a bowl of this stew and a bowl of rice at the end of the meal.

There are many variations of this dish as each household uses their own favorite ingredients.

This is my version and I used what I had available.
It is not always easy to make Korean food in Norway although many immigrant stores are pretty well stocked with exotic food, but Korean products are sadly scares.
I was out of gochujang, so I have replaced it with something called kimchi base that I have found in one of the local immigrant shops.

400 g thinly cut rib eye or the type of meat you want to use
1 tablespoon sesame oil
5 dl kimchi
0.5 dl kimchi brine
1/2 chopped onion
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 tbsp gochujang/kimchi base
1-2 tsp gochugaru or cayenne pepper
7.5 dl water
1/2 package tofu
2 sliced scallions

In a heavy bottomed saute the beef, garlic and the onions, when the onions are glossy add kimchi and keep sauteing until the mixture is very fragrant.

Add the kimchi juice, water, chili paste, chili flakes and drizzle sesame oil, stir everything together to combine.

Bring to a boil and taste for spiciness, adjust with gochugaru to increase the heat to where you want it. Add the tofu, turn down the heat to a simmer and let it cook for 15-20 minutes, or until the beef and kimchi are tender.

When you’re ready to serve the kimchi jjiggae, add the green onions. Put the pot on the tablet and serve it with rice.