Kare-Kare (Peanut Beef Stew)

Who wouldn't love Kare Kare?  I have always loved eating this dish with a spicy bagoong.  The peanut sauce has a nice sweet salty taste which makes the dish more delicious.  I remember cooking this years ago when the ready to use sauce mix was not around yet and cooking Kare Kare would get much of my time in preparing all the ingredients.

I would usually go to Malolos Market then to get the best tripe and beef cuts available. Tripes are very saleable so I had to go to the market early in the morning before everything is gone.  Near the meat stalls, you would find lots of small stores selling retail or wholesale the ingredients that you would need.  There's a certain kind of peanut butter made especially for kare-kare dish.  It's more pure and compact than the ordinary peanut butter in jar.  I would usually get both.  They would weigh the pure peanut butter and I would buy a quarter of a kilo and one medium size jar. 

I am in a different country now where the Filipino store is about 8 hours away (we used to have one almost two hour drive, but it went bankrupt : ( ..)  I have to use whatever stuff is available at the nearest supermarket. 
Ingredients
1 K beef round or tail
1/2  tripe
1/4 tsp anato seeds (atchuete)
1 tsp salt
1/2 c peanut spread (chunky or smooth)
1/3 peanuts (toasted and ground)
1 tsbp garlic, minced
1 medium onion, diced
1 Mama Sita Kare Kare mix soup base
1 bundle of string beans (snake beans) or baguio beans
1 bundle of pechay (bokchoy or wombok)
1/2 cabbage (medium size)
1 small banana bud
2 eggplants '
salt to taste
shrimp paste (bagoong)

Procedure
Soak anato seeds in warm water in a small bowl (about tbsp of warm water).  Set aside.
Use a pressure cooker to tenderise the meat and tripe or boil them until tender.  Set aside.
Sautee onions and garlic in a wok.  Put in the meat and tripe.
Pour in 6 cups of water and boil.
Put in the annato water, salt, peanuts, peanut butter and soup base.  Stir.
Add the veggies.  Cook until veggies are half - cooked or just right to your liking.
Serve with rice and bagoong.

Note:  If you do not have the soup base, toast 1/4 c of rice and then grind in a blender.  Add 2 cups of peanut butter instead of 1/2.  It's ok if you do not have all the veggies.  Just use whatever you can get.

A comment or two will be appreciated...