tita haydee's kare-kare recipe

I'm so glad I learned something new yesterday. My wonderful new friend Tita Haydee taught me how to make kare-kare . She's not really my tita.  She's just a few years older than I am, but I call her "tita" because she's a friend of my mom's.

I always thought of kare-kare as an ultra-challenging dish to prepare, but Mrs. H showed me how to do it the easy way.  Since she's quite health conscious too, she gave me a few tips to make it "safer" for human consumption.


Ingredients: 

Beef, cut into cubes
Oxtail
String beans
Pechay
Eggplant
Kalabasa
One large onion
Garlic, 4 cloves
Achuete powder, 3-4 tbsps or one packet
Reduced fat peanut butter, 2 cups or 1 jar


You'll also need:
At least 2 large cooking pots
Strainer
Slotted soon


Procedure:

1.  Wash beef and oxtail  thoroughly under running water.

2. Place the beef in a pot, with enough water to cover it completely.  When it comes to a boil, remove from heat, drain and wash off the excess fat.  Repeat once more.

3.  Boil beef again until soft.  This may take 2-4 hours on the stovetop, or 30 minutes in a pressure cooker.

4.  Meanwhile, chop vegetables into bite-sized chunks.  Set aside.

5.  Take pot #2 and boil water.  Dunk vegetables briefly in boiling water to rinse out any impurities.  Set veggies aside and throw away the water.

6.  Boil the eggplant until tender.  Do the same with the kalabasa.  Set aside.

7.  Boil about 2 cups of water.  Stir in 2 cups of reduced fat peanut butter (or one whole jar) until melted.  It has to be reduced  fat peanut butter because  most other kinds tend to produce globs of oil. Pour this into a bowl and set aside.

8.  Sautee onions and garlic in oil in pot #2.  Stir in the achuete.  Pour in the molten peanut butter and stir until smooth.

9.  Check the meat pot now.  When the meat is completely tender, gradually stir in the peanut butter sauce, about a cupful at a time.

10.  Add the vegetables, put heat on low and let simmer for 2 minutes.  No too long because you want the veggies to be crunchy.