Slow Cooked Beef Stew (Slow Cooked Beef Caldereta)

I finally had a chance to use my new slow cooker! It was a gift of my husband for my birthday and since then, I was thinking what is the best recipe to inaugurate my new baby in the kitchen.

So I tried googling and found quite plenty of very appetizing recipes. I decided to try it first with a beef recipe to know exactly its capacity to soften tough meat. My husband requested for Caldereta (Beef Stew). I found different recipes and procedures online but as I wanted it to taste more like our own version of Caldereta, I added some twist to the usual beef stew recipes. 

When I was reading procedures about how long it usually take to fully soften the beef meat using slow cooker, I thought it is quite long hours and too much to do. But then I realized, since I am more into multi-tasking, I could prepare lunch and dinner at the same time. Well, I could prepare lunch and prepare also the things for the slow cooker. Then just set my slow cooker after eating lunch and have a good rest. That will be just perfectly ready by dinner time :)

Well, any way, here's my version of Caldereta using slow cooker. It only took me 10 minutes to prepare everything before setting it into the slow cooker, yeah, that easy.  

Ingredients:

• 1 Kg Beef Brisket cut into 6 cubes
• 2 medium sized potatoes - cut into cubes 2"x2"
• 2 medium sized carrots - sliced about 1" thickness
• 1 medium sized green bell pepper - cut in cubes
• 1 large sized onion - cut in cubes
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 3 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 small can liver spread
• 1 tablespoon margarine
• 2 1/2 cups beef broth
• salt
• pepper
• ground dried basil (optional)
• oil

Procedure:

1. Season beef with salt and pepper.
2. Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Add the beef and cook until it begins to brown, about 3 minutes. Remove from skillet, set aside and drain the excess oil.
4. Lightly pan fry the potatoes and carrots. Remove from heat and set aside.
5. Heat a casserole with 1 tablespoon oil and saute garlic and onion.
6. Add the beef broth and tomato paste.
7. Mix in the liver spread and margarine.
8. Season with salt and pepper. Let it boil for a minute. Set aside.
9. Put the beef, potatoes, carrots and green bell pepper into the slow cooker.
10. Season with dried ground basil.
11. Pour in the broth mixture.
12. Cover the slow cooker and cook in high for 5 hours.
13. Serve and enjoy!

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Spicy Chicken Caldereta cooked with Coconut Milk

The name Caldereta comes from the the spanish “caldera”, meaning cooking pot. Caldereta (Kaldereta) is one of the many classic Filipino dishes. It can be cooked with beef, pork or chicken.

Traditionally, Caldereta sauce is thickened with mashed cooked liver, but modern or should I say cooks-in-a-rush substitutes canned liver spread, either ways, I guess you won’t really notice the difference; your caldereta will still taste good.

One attributes of a good “caldereta” is the sauce and if you attained a very flavourful sauce, then diners will really consume lots and lots of rice.

One of the secret ingredients I learned from my Mom in cooking Caldereta is to use coconut milk as the base of its tasty sauce. The aroma is so tempting somewhat saying “come and indulge”. =D

In this particular recipe, I didn’t used much ingredients, I only made used of the available vegetables in my fridge. Nonetheless, the taste is still very good!

Ingredients:

• 1 Kg Chicken cuts
• 2 small can liver spread or ½ kg ground liver
• Onions, minced
• Garlic, minced
• 2 carrots – ½ inch sliced
• 2 pcs Potatoes cubed
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• ¾ cup soy sauce
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 4 pieces hot chilli peppers, minced
• ¾ cup grated cheese
• 1 cups Chicken stock
• 2 cups Coconut Milk Powder – dissolved in 1 cup water (1 can Coconut Milk)
• Salt and pepper
• Oil

Procedure:

1. Marinade chicken cuts in soy sauce and lemon juice at least an hour. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a pan. Fry the carrots and potatoes. Set aside.
3. Heat oil in a casserole. Sauté garlic and onion.
4. Add the marinated chicken and its mixture.
5. Mix the minced chilli and season it with salt and pepper. Cover and let it simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Add the chicken stock, tomato sauce, liver and coconut milk. Mix and let it simmer ‘til the chicken are cooked.
7. Add the grated cheese, fried carrots and potatoes. Serve with rice.

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