Yummy! "kare-kare" - Graciana "Lola Gatching" De Guzman

Food is a primary need of everyone, this is where we get our energy so that we can work properly. Speaking of food, Food is our hobby in my family. Starting from my lolo's dad, lolo's wife, my lolo and his siblings, my dad and his siblings, of course me and my cousins, our siblings. We all have different attitudes and aspects in life, but there is on thing that  I 'am very sure, being addicted in eating or I can say we really love to eat. And there is only one person behind these affirmation attitudes. Our very own "Lola Gatching," she really has the knowledge when it comes to cooking. Everytime she cooks, everybody is waiting and craving her dishes. 

One of her specialties is "kare-kare." When she cooks this, everyone feels the thrill on how will it taste, do you also want to taste it ? I bet you want. Alright! 

First things first, she'll visit a market and complete the ingredients, beef, oxtail, ears, eggplant, pechay, sitaw, garlic, onions, atsute and a roasted nuts. If she have all these ingredients, it's time to deal with it. First she picks the delicious parts of the meat, The twalya, buntot, litid, laman, tenga. All these parts will be boiled until it get very soft and tasty. She'll gather all the meats, then separate it on a different "plangana" (big plate) and leave the fats, separated part of a meat, so that the juices of the dish will stay. Then after that, In a big pan or wok, she heats oil and atsuete oil. Sauté garlic, onions until golden brown, then add the stock, beef, oxtail, twalya, tenga, litid and peanut butter. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Salt to taste. Now we are half-way in lola gatching's "kare-kare." The next step is combining the healthy part of the dish, the eggplant, sitaw, pechay, she cook the vegetables for a few minutes, she wants the vegetables fresh so she don't overcook. We are not yet done, we still have one job to do, to add more flavor and for us to enjoy the "kare-kare," the bagoong alamang, lola gatching make her own bagoong, it's a secret but I can tell you a little style of her's, just saute the garlic into the oil then wait until it gets brown, then put the bagoong alamang and stir until it gets cooked. Together with a steam rice and roasted nuts on the side, we are now ready to eat. Enjoy eating! Adios!