Kare-kare is a classic Filipino dish and people believe that it was originated in Pampanga, which is also known as the Culinary Center of the Philippines, and I am not surprised because pork kare kare is really delicious and one of my favorite Filipino dishes. Some studies also claimed that kare-kare was acquired from the indian word “curry” and the dish was introduced to us by the Indians. There’s a lot of theory on where did this dish originated, however I really love how my mom cooks pork kare-kare that’s why I want to share you her special recipe and techniques on how to cook it.
This dish might be intimidating to others because it looks difficult and complicated to cook, but trust me it is not. All you need is atsuete seeds, your desired meat, peanut butter, eggplant, string beans or sitaw, chinese cabbage, onion, garlic, cooking oil, shrimp paste or bagoong, cooking pan, and boiling pan. It’s up to you if you want to add more ingredients, you can experiment and be creative!
The color of kare-kare which is usually orange, comes from the atsuete seeds so the first thing you must do is to soak the seeds in warm water, stir it until it extracts the expected color from the seeds. If you want your meat to be pata, my mom told me it needs to be partially boiled to remove the impurities from the meat. But if you are using other meats like kasim or liempo, you can skip the pre-boiling step. My mother wants it to be tender yet crispy so she told me to sauté the pata or the meat in a cooking oil. After that, boil the string beans or sitaw, eggplant, and Chinese white cabbage until soft in not more that one minute. Place another cooking pan and sauté the onion and garlic. My mother said onion must be added to the pan first before garlic because garlic is easy to get toasted. Lower the heat then add the peanut butter and stir it in not more than 10 seconds. Add the atsuete sauce you’ve boiled a while ago and stir until fully mixed. Next, add the meat and stir it until it absorbs the sauce. Add water or the meat stock you’ve used a while ago, stir then cover the pan.
After 8 minutes check if the meat is fully tender and cooked, if it is then it is ready to be served on the table. It is much better if you associated it with a shrimp paste or bagoong and rice. And that’s the secret of my mother’s pork kare-kare, bon appetit!
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