Kare-Kare, Pork stew in peanut sauce with shrimp paste

One of my all time Filipino food favorite is Kare-Kare (it doesn't matter if it's pork, beef or chicken as long as it's NOT ox tail, tongue [tuwalya] or anything that says, innards of a dead animal)

I don't use instant sauces or anything that says pre-prepared, pre-packed bought at the grocery kind of sauces.

What you need:

1K pork (I buy the pre-cut cubed pork from the grocery)
1 small bottle of peanut butter
2 tablespoons of grounded sticky rice
2 tablespoons of atsuete (put inside a bowl with water to juice the color)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium onion chopped finely
3 liters of water
2 tablespoons of cooking oil
salt and pepper to taste

Vegetables:

1 medium cabbage head, sliced into quarters
6 medium sized eggplants, cut diagonally
1/4 kilo of baguio beans, destringed

Shrimp paste from Barrio Fiesta (bottled)

What to do:

Boil the meat in a pot with 3 liters of water until tender.
Saute garlic and onions in oil. Add them to the meat when the onions have caramelized (turned clear).
Put the ground sticky rice to the boiling meat and add atsuete juice. Simmer for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes, add the peanut butter, stir.
Simmer for another 10 minutes or until the sauce thickens.

Vegetables: I prefer to steam them instead of putting them directly into the stew, so that they remain crunchy.

Serve the Kare-Kare with steamed rice and the steamed vegetables, serve shrimp paste separately (just in case someone has allergies to it). Enjoy!

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