About this recipe
Oxtail simmered until it gives, in a thick peanut sauce thickened further with toasted ground rice and coloured orange with annatto, served with vegetables cooked separately and a dish of sautéed shrimp paste on the side. The sauce is nothing like a satay dip: it is heavy, savoury and barely sweet at all, and it is meant to be eaten with the bagoong rather than seasoned to taste in the pot. The dish is deliberately under-salted for exactly that reason — the salt comes at the table.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 6 servings
- Prep
- 35 minutes
- Cook
- 3 hours 30 minutes
- Total
- 245 minutes
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Spice
- Mild
Allergens Contains peanuts and shellfish (bagoong alamang). Not suitable for nut or shellfish allergies.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The meat
- 3 lb (1.4 kg) oxtail, cut into 2 in (5 cm) sections
- 8 oz (225 g) beef tripe, cleaned (optional)
- 10 cups (2.4 L) water
- 1 large onion, quartered
- 2 tsp (12 g) salt
The sauce
- 2 tbsp (18 g) annatto (atsuete) seeds
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) neutral oil
- 1/3 cup (65 g) raw white rice, for toasting
- 1 cup (260 g) unsweetened natural peanut butter, or 1 1/2 cups (220 g) roasted unsalted peanuts, ground to a paste
- 1 large onion, chopped fine
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
The vegetables
- 1 banana heart (puso ng saging), about 12 oz (340 g), tough outer layers removed, sliced and soaked in salted water — or substitute below
- 8 oz (225 g) long beans (sitaw), cut into 3 in (7.5 cm) lengths
- 2 small Asian eggplants, sliced 1 in (2.5 cm) thick on the diagonal
- 1 bunch bok choy (pechay), about 8 oz (225 g), separated into leaves
To serve
- 1/2 cup (120 g) bagoong alamang (fermented shrimp paste)
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) neutral oil, for frying the bagoong
- 2 cloves garlic, minced, for the bagoong
- Steamed rice
Equipment
- Heavy pot or Dutch oven, at least 6 qt (5.7 L)
- Dry skillet for toasting the rice
- Spice grinder or mortar and pestle
- Small frying pan for the bagoong
Method
- Put the oxtail, the tripe if using, the water, the quartered onion and the salt in the pot. Bring to a boil over high heat and skim off the foam.
- Lower to a gentle simmer, cover partly and cook 3 hours, until the oxtail is completely tender and the meat is coming away from the bone. Top up with hot water if the level drops below the meat.
- Lift out the oxtail and tripe. Strain the broth and reserve 4 cups (950 ml); skim off most of the fat from the surface. Slice the tripe into strips if you used it.
- Make the annatto oil: warm the annatto seeds in the 1/2 cup neutral oil in a small pan over low heat for 3-4 minutes, until the oil turns deep orange. Strain out and discard the seeds. The seeds give colour, not flavour, and are not saffron or turmeric.
- Toast the raw rice in the dry skillet over medium heat, shaking often, 5-6 minutes, until it is evenly golden brown and smells nutty. Cool, then grind to a fine powder.
- Heat 3 tbsp of the annatto oil in the cleaned pot over medium heat. Fry the chopped onion 4 minutes until soft, then the minced garlic 1 minute more.
- Stir in the peanut butter or ground peanuts and cook 2 minutes, then pour in the reserved 4 cups of broth a little at a time, stirring until smooth.
- Whisk in the toasted rice powder. Simmer 10-12 minutes, stirring often, until the sauce is thick enough to hold the trail of a spoon. Add more broth if it stiffens too far.
- Return the oxtail and tripe to the sauce and simmer 10 minutes to warm through and take on colour. Season very lightly — the bagoong will bring the salt.
- Cook the vegetables separately in salted boiling water so they keep their colour: banana heart 6 minutes, long beans 4 minutes, eggplant 4 minutes, bok choy 1 minute. Drain each as it is done.
- Fry the bagoong: heat the 1 tbsp oil in the small pan over medium, fry the 2 minced garlic cloves 30 seconds, add the bagoong alamang and fry 3-4 minutes, stirring, until it darkens and smells toasted rather than raw. Tip into a small bowl.
- Arrange the oxtail and sauce in a wide dish with the vegetables laid over and around it. Serve with the fried bagoong and rice, letting each person add shrimp paste to their own plate.
The Complete Edition
Kare-Kare sits in the Philippines chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Philippines chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.