There are several tomato-based dishes in Filipino cuisine. Of these, the most special would be the caldereta – a Filipino beef stew consisting of beef, potatoes, bell pepper, liver spread, olives and nuts. This is usually served on fiestas and other special occasions.
Since we raise turkeys at home, we usually have turkey caldereta instead of beef. When do we serve it? Birthdays, fiestas and Christmas lunch with my cousins. Oh, and this year, my dad’s high school classs will be celebrating their 50th year of graduation from high school. It’s a potluck lunch. Guess what he will be bringing?
While caldereta may be Filipino dish, each family has it’s version of a good caldereta. Here’s mine. And this my contribution to Festive Food Fair.
Ingredients
Marinade:
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup soy sauce
2 tsp black pepper, crushed
Caldereta:
2.5 kg turkey meat (any part will do, chopped*)
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, minced
500 grams potatoes, quartered
2 pcs each red and green bell pepper
1/2 cup seeded green olives
1/4 cup capers
2 cups tomato sauce
50 grams liver spread
1/2 cup peanuts, chopped coarsely
1. Mariante turkey meat in garlic, soy sauce and black pepper for an hour.
2. Heat 3 tbsp oil in a pot. Brown the turkey meat. Reserve the marinade for later use.
3. When meat is browned, and the meat juices have evaporated, saute garlic and onion. Put the meat on the side so you can saute the garlic and onions. When onion is cooked, mix everything in the pot. At this stage, it is like frying the meat with very little oil.
4. Add the potatoes and sautee some more. Add 3 cups of water and bring to a boil till meat is tender. The amount of water depends on the meat. In our case, since turkey is raised in the backyard, it can be more tough so we tend to cook it longer. Check if potatoes are done and remove from the pot.
5. Check that there is enough broth that cover half the pot. When meat is tender,add the olives, capers and tomato sauce. Put back half the potatoes. Mash the other half of the potatoes and put back in the back. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes until thick. The mashed potatoes acts as a thickener so that you would have a coarsely-thicked sauce.
6. Add the liver spread, bell pepper, and peanuts to the pot and mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Well, since this is a Filipino dish, this is really good with rice!
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Sawadee kha! My name is Gay a.k.a. A Scientist in the Kitchen. Science and cooking are two of my passions. I'm a corn breeder who also loves to eat and cook. My kitchen is in Phitsanulok, Thailand where I am based together with Pasta (yes, I love Italian food!) my black labrador retriever.
What an interesting combination of flavors! It sounds wonderful – and, definitely, with rice….
wonderful dish – i’ve only had it once before…i need to come over and have you feed me!!!
in batangas, the oldies usually do calderata with kambing. not bad too! totoo, each family really has its own calderata tradition no! im sure yours is one of the better ones.
Thanks Gita!
This is very interesting, as was your piece about the turkey cooked over the fire, which I hadn’t read before. I had no idea olives and capers were used in Filipino cooking. I’m curious about the liver spread — do you mean like liverwurst, or is the liver spread an item special to the Phillipines?? Thanks for sharing this!
Hi Laurie, capers and olives are not really used in most Filipino cooking. I think with the availability of capers and olives in the market has exposed Filipinos to foreign ingredients. Capers and olives here are imported. Or maybe my caldereta is not one of the traditional Filipino caldereta
As for liver spread, yes they are liverwurst. I found out it’s just the same when I read a novel with liverwurst in a conversation. My sister and I got curious and bought liverwurst, the imported kind. It’s just liver spread here!!! We always laugh about it.
Thanks scientist! Very helpful answer.
Olives are actually used in a few “traditional” Filipino dishes due to 3 centuries of Spanish colonialism. My mom insists that olives are one of the main ingredients in Cadereta. By the way, Caldereta is traditionally made with goat.