Auntie Pila was a strict, straight-laced, devout catholic. A lot of us cousins jokingly called her "Auntie-Patica" because of her poker-faced facade. Though we never saw each other eye-to-eye in almost all things, the only tie that bound us was when we shared our passion in the kitchen. When I was just a kid, I used to be "Auntie's little helper." I enjoyed going with her to the market every weekends to buy our weekly staple and helped out in carrying heavy loads of ingredients. We even made our way to the unchartered areas of Central Market, Divisoria, Tabora, Baclaran and even Binondo to find exotic condiments and the freshest meats and vegetables. She taught me to slice and dice condiments, meats and fish at an early age. When I was old enough to use the stove, she mentored the very basics of sauteing, frying and boiling food. Patiently, she laboured in teaching me the "old-school" way of cooking before she passed on.
Auntie Pila treated everyday meals as if it were being served to VIPs. She showed me how important it is to prepare a dish with love. Little did I know that I would inherit a treasure trove of heirloom recipes prepared at festive gatherings during the Spanish era that was passed on to her by my grandmother.
She loved preparing kare-kare during family reunions and she painstakingly cleans and boils the oxtail and tripe for hours using wood as kindle until the meats come to a melt-in-your-mouth consistency. She even prepares the peanut sauce from scratch by pounding the peanuts to a paste and toasting raw "malagkit" and pounding it to a powder to thicken the sauce. You could even smell the smokiness of the sauce once you take a whiff at it in the kitchen. For her, there are no shortcuts in making a dish.
Thank you, Auntie Pila. For sharing with me the "joy" in cooking. It was an exciting adventure that I will always hold dear to my heart. I hope, dear readers, that you would enjoy this recipe as much as I enjoyed cooking this with my aunt.
1 or 2 Kilograms of Oxtail (depending on the size)
1 Kilogram Tripe
2 Tablespoons of vegetable oil for sauteeing
1 head Red Onion chopped finely
2-3 cloves Garlic chopped finely
2-3 pieces of bok choy cleaned and drained in a colander
5 tablespoons of annatto (achuete) seeds soaked in 1 cup hot water to release the color. sieve the seeds and set aside the colored warm water.
1 medium Banana Heart/Blossom removing the thick outer layers until you reach the tender part in the center (normally colored yellow) sliced thinly then soaked in water
2-3 pieces of eggplants diagonally sliced and soaked in water to retain color
about a bunch of string beans sliced at 2 inches in length
1/2 to 1 cup peanut butter (choose the creamy smooth kind, not the chunky ones)
(if you prefer to do the "old school" kind, pound 2 cups of roasted peanuts to a paste and toast 2 cups of "malagkit" rice until brown and pound it to a powder used as thickener.
salt and pepper to taste
cut and clean the oxtail and tripe by boiling it in water, 1 head of onion (halved), 1 tablespoon of rock salt and 5 tablespoons of vinegar for 1-2 hours in a pressure cooker or boil the meats in a large pan on woodfire. skim the scum on top. remove the water and replace with fresh water, 1 teaspoon of salt and pepper and boil it again for another hour or until tender or until you achieve the gelatinous consistency of the oxtail. drain the oxtail and tripe but do not discard the broth for future use.
in a deep pan, saute garlic and onions until tender. drain the banana blossom and saute. add the oxtail and tripe and continue sauteing. add the broth and bring to a boil. add the peanut butter (or the pounded peanut and malagkit mixture) and continue cooking it until sauce is thickened. add the annatto water to color the sauce. simmer and add the eggplants and cook it until tender followed by the string beans then the bok choy.
you can buy a prepared bottled “bagoong” from a Filipino store (if you are cooking the dish abroad. choose the Barrio Fiesta label) or prepare 1 cup fresh shrimp paste by sauteing it in 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon finely chopped onion, 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic and 2 finely chopped medium tomatoes. add 1 tablespoon of vinegar to cut the saltiness of the shrimp paste and 1 to 11/2 tablespoons of table sugar. constantly stir it so that the shrimp paste mixture does not stick at the bottom of the pan. remove from fire if the mixture is dry.
