Name: Beef Caldereta
Cuisine: Filipino
Ingredients: 1 kg beef cubed; 1 large onion chopped; 4 cloves garlic crushed and chopped; 3 medium tomatoes chopped; 3 medium potatoes sliced; 2 medium red bell peppers cut into strips; 2 medium green bell peppers cut into strips; 1 medium carrot cubed; 3 slices of mozzarella cheese; ¼ tsp dried basil leaves; ½ tsp salt; 170 g liver spread; 5 ½ cups water; 2 cups tomato sauce

Instructions

Saute beef with onion and garlic.
Add water and bring to boil, then simmer for 1 hour.
Add tomato sauce, liver spread, and dried bay leaves. Simmer until tender with occasional stirring. (Add more water if needed)
Add salt, tomatoes, green and red bell peppers, carrots, mozzarella cheese, and potatoes. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Beef Caldereta (Beef Kaldereta) is one of the most popular dishes in the Philippines. It’s usually served during special occasions. You can use pork or chicken instead of beef, since we all know beef takes quite a long time to cook without a pressure cooker. Beef is also quite pricey in the Philippines, so a lot of people prefer using pork instead.

I added green bell peppers too, for extra color. The norm is usually to just use red bell peppers.

Beef Caldereta comes together by slowly infusing all those flavors into the beef and its sauce. It may seem intimidating to make, but it’s actually pretty simple. All you have to do is follow this recipe and simmer it for a long, long, long time 🙂

Notes

Add water when necessary; cooking time depends on how tough the meat is.
You can add hot peppers for heat, but it’s optional.