Beef Caldereta - a great food to eat lunch!

Have you ever heard of the food Caldereta? This is a Spanish dish that was learned by the Filipinos. As you all might know, Philippines was colonized by the Spaniards many years back. Thus, we have inherited some words, names, & genes from them. And so were the food.

Caldereta is just one of the food we have inherited from Spain. As far as I can remember, they use goat meat for this recipe, but eventually, any other meat (except for fish) may be used for this dish.

At 9am in the morning, I woke up & wanted to cook something homemade. Everything should be from scratch. I cannot help but feel nostalgic about this dish. My grandfather has the best caldereta I have ever tasted! I had to retrace in my mind what I have learned from his caldereta. My lola (grandmother) was his partner when cooking delicious dishes on occasions. I felt like crying when I was already putting the crackers in the dish to make it a bit a sticky. My lolo (grandfather) used to say that he has the best caldereta in town, & I couldn't agree more. I have tasted so many delicious calderetas, but his always wins. I have never ever tasted anything like his own caldereta from anyone else.

I will share with you the recipe I have come up with. It's not my grandfather's recipe, but it tasted just like it! Delicious! Best when served with cooked rice.

Ingredients :

1/2 kilo beef (or any meat that is available, except fish)
2 tablespoons of vinegar
1 onion, sliced
2 red bell peppers, *julienned (you can also use green or yellow bellpepper if you like)
1 garlic
3 potatoes, cut into big chunks
2 carrots, cut into big chunks
1 can of pineappple (chunks, tidbits, any)
green peas (you can use fresh or canned)
1 can of tomato sauce
Skyflakes (or any crackers), crushed (like bread crumbs)
grated cheese
salt
Ajinomoto or MSG or powdered black pepper

Procedure :
Boil the beef, a dash of salt & Ajimoto (or MSG) or powdered black pepper & vinegar, until tender. If you can poke or stick a fork easily into the beef, it is tender. You may put in more water if the beef isn't tender yet.

Once beef is tender, pour the pineapple's juice and 1 more cup of water. Let it simmer for 10mins. After 10mins, just leave the beef heated while you saute your garlic in another pan (big enough to cook the dish in). When almost brown, transfer the beef (only) in the pan. Stir occasionally. Put in the potatoes & carrots in the beef's stock, just to soften it a bit. Add the tomato sauce in the beef. Allow to simmer for 10mins. Transfer beef stock, potatoes, carrots, pineappple, & green peas on the beef. If vegetables are already soft when you stick a fork in, add crushed crackers & cheese. Mix. You can season to taste.

Enjoy your meal!!!


*Julienne is a food preparation in which state a food item is cut into long thin strips. (Wikipedia definition)

Fondant Success

After the wedding cake, my mind keeps on going back to fondant. It looks so easy when you watch someone make it and cover the cake with it, but it's never easy when you're the one making it. I had a terrible experience with fondant the 2nd time I made it so I wanted to try it again.

I tested it on the cake my office mate ordered from me. There was no particular design because she only ordered for her kids to snack on. So it was an opportunity I wanted to take advantage of. Of course, I bought a bigger & better rolling pin for better results. he-he! I was really glad it turned out right. I call it my Fondant Success. =)

Just a simple design on the cake.

Kherby's Birthday!

This has been a very delayed post, but I am not going to pass this up. It was Kherby's 4th birthday & I made the cake for his special day. He wanted a Batman cake & I did my best to make it look as good as everyone wanted it to be.

I was so worried & nervous because the cakes I was baking were not turning out right the way I used to do it. This problem started a week before I did the wedding cake. Remember the bad times I blogged about the wedding cake? It was exactly the same thing with Kherby's birthday cake. The cake had a bread-like texture and the edges were drying out. Too dry. And the middle keeps on slumping down. I really don't know what I was doing wrong because I am following the exact same recipe and used the same ingredients for my chocolate cake.

After several tries, I was able to bake a good cake (but not good enough for me, though) and decorated it with black and blue. Juby, his yaya (nanny) helped by making all those fondant circles to be put around the cake. All day, I was worried that everyone will not find the cake tasty once they eat it.

At the end of the day, the cake was cut for the birthday boy and everyone else. To my surprise, the cake was not dry. I believe it was because of the filling I put on the cake & the fact that it was not stored in the fridge made it a moist chocolate cake. Everyone said that the cake tasted really good. I was definitely surprised & relieved that it worked out fine.

Anyway, check out the cake I made below. Happy looking!