Double, Double, Toil and Trouble - Fire Burn and Caldereta Bubble

With memories of Eduardo's still fresh in our minds, Noe and I decided to start perfecting another Filipino recipe. We decided on beef caldereta, a rich beef stew simmered in tomato sauce. Much like the adobo, we combined recipes from several Filipino cookbooks and made some personal modifications.

We started with 2 lbs. of beef stew meat. Both recipes mentioned using less stew meat and also using beef or pork liver. We didn't do this because the grocery store was actually out of liver, but if you're squeamish about liver, this would be a good alternative for you.

I browned the meat in a couple tablespoons of oil, then dumped the meat, oil, and beef drippings into a stock pot.

2 lbs. of cubed beef

 

Browning the beef in oil

After I transferred the beef to the stock pot, I added a chopped up onion (a large one), four cups of beef stock (I used Emeril beef stock- it had less additives than the other grocery store stocks and I just have not had the time to make beef stock lately), and a couple cups of water. I brought this all to a boil and then let it simmer.

 

Adding onions and stock to the beef

 

While my pot of beef and onions simmered away, I added a little more olive oil to my beef skillet and threw a whole head of minced garlic in there (tip - if your hands/knife/counter/cutting board reek of garlic after this chopping bonanza, rub them with half a lemon before washing - it neutralizes the odor). The recipe said to cook the garlic until fragrant; as my kitchen was already pretty pungent, I just sort of winged it.

 

Garlic browning in oil

After I determined the garlic was fragrant enough, I added about 1.5-2 cups of tomato sauce or puree and 1/3 cup of white vinegar. After giving it a stir, I added some grated parmesan (one recipe said cheddar, one said parm - I had parm in the fridge, so parm it was), salt, pepper, and two tablespoons of sugar. I stirred this together and simmered for about six or seven minutes.

 

Adding vinegar to the garlic and tomato sauce 

 

Parm, sugar, salt, and pepper

After the tomato mixture came together, I added it to my simmering stock pot of beef and onions. I let that all simmer for 30 minutes, then gave it a quick stir, added some tomato paste (to thicken it up) and some chopped up carrots, then let it simmer for another 30 minutes. At that point, I threw in a chopped red pepper and let it go while Noe cooked the rice. When the rice cooker light went off, we determined dinner was ready.

The finished product over rice

All in all, this turned out pretty well. It had a nice richness, probably from the beef stock along with the drippings and oil added at the beginning. The tomato sauce was nice and tangy, but Noe and I agreed that perhaps more sugar to balance out the acidity would have made this even better. Both recipes had various things that we did not add (one had peas, one had olives, one even had pickles) which may have enhanced the overall flavor, but Noe and I were happy with just the onions, garlic, carrots, and pepper.

If you're into comfort food and looking for an alternative to beef stew, this recipe might be a good option for you. Play with a little bit - Noe and I will be!

A little bit of the islands, nestled in Indianapolis

Even though I live with a native of the Philippines, I have not been exposed to a lot of Filipino cuisine. Noe and I have done a few experiments, most notable our ever-evolving Adobo recipe (which we think we're getting pretty good at). Other than adobo, we haven't really tried out any other recipes yet. So when Joan (Noe's sister) told us about a Filipino restaurant in Indiana that she swore "tastes like mama's cooking" we had to check it out.

Exterior of Eduardo's

Eduardo's doesn't look like much on the outside. It's in a pretty run-down section of town. It's actually pretty confusing, because the sign next to the door says "Charlie Bigg's Chicken" - you have to look at the door itself to see "Eduardo's" spelled out in barely visible red letters. Inside, it looks like a (remarkably clean) fast food chicken restaurant - which it is. Apparently, the owners do a lot of regular weekday business with the fried chicken and fish crowd. However, when they started putting their Filipino dishes on the menu, a new crowd started seeking them out.

The owners actually have a Filipino catering business and a cart that they take to fairs and events. Seeing how well the food went over at these events, they decided to add several Filipino dishes every day to their otherwise standard fried chicken menu. On weekends, they have a whole buffet spread of Filipino food, but we were there on a Tuesday afternoon, so we had about four dishes (rotating daily) to choose from.

The woman behind the counter (one of the owners) was kind enough to let us sample everything before we made our decisions. Although the pork adobo was excellent, Noe and I were both swayed by the beef caldereta.

Beef Caldereta

Beef caldereta is basically a tomato-based beef stew that includes vegetables such as onions and peppers and is served (like many Filipino dishes) over white rice. Eduardo's caldereta was extremely flavorful - I definitely could taste some garlic, and there was some spice I couldn't exactly pinpoint in the background. It was warm and filling and perfect for a cold winter's day (which is exactly what we were facing, weather-wise).

Noe's brother Jan ordered the adobo, which, with it's pickle-y vinegar tang and subtle soy sauce flavors, did not disappoint.

Pork Adobo

We all ordered pancit noodles, which I had never heard of prior to this trip. Pancit noodles are skinny rice noodles, fried with soy sauce and a bit of something else (citrus? I couldn't quite pinpoint it, but it added some depth to the soy) and served with some shredded meat (in this case, chicken) and thinly chopped vegetables.
These noodles were amazing. I could probably eat them for lunch every day.

Pancit Noodles

We rounded out our meals with some mini lumpia (egg rolls) - which the Eduardo's staff fried up specially for us so we could have them extra-fresh and extra hot.

Lumpia

I couldn't resist finishing off my meal with a dessert. I ordered flan. I have a love-hate relationship with flan. Sometimes it can be slimy - more like Jell-O than a custard. I am pleased to report that Eduardo's flan was of a non-offensive consistency. In fact, it was almost creamy when it hit the tongue.

Possibly the best flan I have ever had

I have to give one more mention to the cleanliness of the building and the friendliness of the staff. I have been in sit-down restaurants that haven't been as clean and where I haven't been treated nearly as nicely as we were at Eduardo's. Ask questions about the food if you're not sure about something - not only will you get an explanation, but you'll probably get to try before you buy.

Noe enjoying his meal at Eduardo's

 

Eduardo's may not look like much, but if you're in the Indianapolis area and are interested in Filipino food (or if you're just looking for a warm, filling meal or an interesting alternative to Chinese, Thai, or other rice/noodle-type cuisines) I would highly recommend it. The three Filipinos in our group all gave it two thumbs up. Don't let the fast food atmosphere fool you - this is quality comfort food, island-style.

Eduardo's 
2412B East Raymond Street, Indianapolis, IN 46203-4557
(317) 788-9615

The Philippines Are For (Food) Lovers

Those of you who don't personally know me probably do not know that my boyfriend, Noe, is Filipino. Noe was born in the Philippines and came here with his family when he was a kid. He has been back once to visit since then. I've met some of his relatives, including his cousin Hazel when she was here visiting from Cebu. We have a sort of vague plan to go there, maybe in 2010.


So, needless to say, when we saw that Anthony Bourdain was going to the Philippines on last night's episode of his show, No Reservations, we decided to tune in (we would have tuned in anyway - we're Bizarre Foods and No Reservations junkies, but you get the point). Then Noe decided that not only should we watch the episode, but we should make a night of it by cooking a Filipino meal. And by "we" I mean me, who is not the least bit Filipino at all. However, I'm game for anything in the kitchen, so I agreed.

Noe picked pork adobo as his dish of choice. Adobo basically means that the meat of your choosing - most cookbooks have it with chicken, pork, or a combination of both and we saw Bourdain eat shrimp adobo on the show - is simmered in a mixture mostly consisting of vinegar, soy sauce, and TONS of garlic. The dish is simple in the fact that it does not have an overwhelming amount of ingredients (below is a picture of everything I used) or a complicated cooking technique, but it is difficult for an outsider to make and serve to a native Filipino because every part of the Philippines - and probably every family in those parts - has a slightly different variation on how to make it.

Eight ingredients...endless variations!

Noe and I came up with the recipe we decided to use by studying two Filipino cookbooks and then adjusting some of the quantities. In the end, I used about two lbs. of pork (cubed pieces of a roast); maybe a cup of finely chopped onion; a bulb and a half (I told you it was a lot) of peeled, crushed garlic; one cup of soy sauce; two cups of white vinegar; a couple bay leaves, some fresh pepper, and about a tablespoon of salt.

Cubing the meat and chopping the onion.

The way we did this was basically putting the cubed pieces of meat into a large pot (NOT aluminum - you don't want alumninun with all that vinegar), putting the onions and garlic in over the meat, adding the liquid ingredients, then topping off with the bayleaf and the pepper. One cookbook said to stir it at this point; one said not to. Noe and I decided to give it a quick stir just to make sure all the meat and onions/garlic were covered by the liquid and then left it alone while we brought it to a boil. After the liquid reached a boil, we turned down the heat, added the salt, and simmered it for about 30 minutes.

Simmering on the stove for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, I heated some oil in a skillet, fished the cubes of pork out of the saucepan with a slotted spoon, and browned them slightly in the oil - just for a few seconds each batch. One of the cookbooks had this listed as an optional step (the other did not include it at all) and Noe said his mom used to do this, so we decided to keep it. We actually browned half the meat and left the other half just simmered so we could compare the two.

Meat after browning.

Noe participated more or less the same way he participates in every meal - plugging in the rice cooker. Noe eats rice with everything, but tonight rice was actually an integral part to the meal. Once the rice was done and the meat was browned, we served it up: rice, topped with meat, drizzled with the cooking liquid. It looked something like this:

Finished product.

This was my first time eating adobo and I really enjoyed it. You wouldn't necessarily think putting three incredibly strong flavors - vinegar, soy sauce, more than an entire bulb of garlic - would result in a harmonious mixture, but it was fantastic. Simmering the meat in the liquid infuses it with flavor, and I love the slightly pickle-y taste the vinegar gives it. And I have never said "no" to garlic.

We sort of cheated - because the new episode of No Reservations featuring the Philippines was not on until 10:00 PM, we watched the rerun of the Spain episode while we ate the adobo (since seeing Vicky Cristina Barcelona on Saturday, I'm a little obsessed with Spain, so this was fine by me). We were rewarded for our wait when the episode finally came on, because Anthony Bourdain focused on Manila and Cebu, which were the two places Noe lived in the Philippines. His family that is still there is in Cebu.

So...pork adobo + good show = very happy Noe. Go me! I can't wait to see what he'll pick for me to try to make next...

Noe gives my first attempt at Filipino cooking a thumbs-up.