A Close Look At My Beef Kaldereta

I have been wanting to do a post on some of the dishes I prepare. During weekdays, I cook dinner for the family, while most weekends, we eat out. So each week, I plan for 4 meals, and do the necessary grocery shopping for ingredients every Saturday morning. If I don't do it by then, my laziness would kick in, and I will probably won't be cooking that week.

The dishes I prepare are nothing fancy. They are your typical Filipino fare, which you may call "comfort food." At lunch, at work or in school, we normally have non-Filipino food, so for dinner, we often look forward to a home-cooked meal that we are familiar with.

One of the favorite dishes I make is kalderetang baka, or the Pinoy version of beef stew. I love it because it is easy to cook, especially if I use a crock pot (or slow cooker). The recipe that I use is my mother's. Before I left Manila for the US many years ago, she gave me copies of her recipes, from  adobo and sinigang na baboy to paella and osso bucco.

I treat my mom's recipes as guides. They help me buy the necessary ingredients I need to make the dishes. And that's where it stops. I don't measure or strictly follow what's written on paper. Everything is mine. And the final outcome is truly my own -- good or bad. For the most part, they have been good and enjoyed by those who have tried them.

For my kalderetang baka, I will give you my mom's recipe towards the end of this post. For now, I will briefly describe the choices of ingredients I've made, and how I prepared the dish.

My meat is a combination beef chuck and shank, including bone & marrow. Both chuck and shank have  a certain amount of fat, which adds to the flavor of the meat. I also include the bone (and marrow), which further enhances the flavor of the dish. These are cut in cubes.

In a fairly large pot, pour olive oil and sautee garlic, onions, and bell peppers. Add a dash of salt and black ground pepper. I always do so whenever I sautee -- the start of my seasoning. Before it gets translucent, add the beef and make it slightly brown on the outside. Then, add more salt and pepper to taste.

After the meat has browned, add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, Worchestershire sauce, soy sauce, sugar, and water. Add bay leaves, peppers (cayene, jalapeno, serrano, or thai chile), cayenne powder, and more black ground pepper. I like my kalderata a little spicy so I add more. You can vary this to your taste. As for the peppers, I make an incision on the skin but keep it whole. I then bring this to a boil.

Once it boils, taste the sauce. Transfer the contents of the pot to a crock pot, then add the potatoes. I add liverwurst (or liver spread) and grated cheese (jack,cheddar, and american) to thicken the sauce and enrich the flavor of the dish. The liverwurst is mixed and diluted all over, and the cheese is sprinkled on top. Cover the crock pot, and cook for 7-8 hours on slow, or until meat is super tender. This dish is best served with steaming jasmine rice.

Recipe

2 lbs sirloin
2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp salt
1 pc bay leaf
1/2 tsp cayenne powder
1.5 cup tomato sauce
3 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp ground pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 pc red bell pepper
1.2 cup grated cheese
1 tbsp liver spread or liverwurst
2 pcs pepper (anaheim, serano, jalapeno, or thai chili) -- optional