Batangas Kaldereta

I spent my childhood in a rural barangay of Batangas City. We moved to the city center when I was already 11 years old.

The fiesta in our barangay, surely like others, is a big community event. The festive mood starts the day before, signaled by novelty songs and a sprinkling of hard rock blaring from public address horns set up at the chapel. The sound system is supposedly meant for the mass to be celebrated in the morning, but might as well use it to induce a party mood the night before.

Amid the blaring music is the occasional shrieking of pigs being slaughtered. The preparation of the meat dishes will start at night and go on well into the early hours of the morning. The fiesta goers -- friends, relatives, and strangers from nearby barangays -- start arriving early lunch. Typical fiesta meat dishes are embotido, afritada, menudo, lechon kawali, pochero and asado. The cooks of meat dishes are men, while women take care of desserts, typically leche flan and buko salad.

I learned my cooking from watching our fiesta cook prepare meat dishes. They cook not based on written recipes, but on mixing ingredients based on estimated proportions. No doubt this was passed on through generations of fiestas. I cook meat dishes pretty much the same way -- through free-flowing, discretionary mixing of ingredients based on my estimated proportions.

While most fiesta meat dishes are pork dishes, there is one non-pork meat dish that is also always prepared. This is Batangas kaldereta using goat meat. This dish is not intended for all visitors; it is for the beer (SMB pale pilsen), brandy (Fundador), or whisky (Johhny Walker Black Label) drinkers.

I prepare my Batangas kaldereta pretty much the same way I learned it from our fiestas. Goat meat is cut in 1 1/2 inch cubes, bones included. The meat is washed and drained well, and then marinated in worcestershire sauce for a few hours. Then I chop generous amounts of red onions (1 portion of onions: 3 portions goat meat), and some garlic. I saute the garlic and onions in margarine or butter before adding in the goat meat with the marinade. More worcestershire sauce will be added, plus a chunk of butter or margarine, and ground pepper. The wok will be covered and simmered in medium heat until the goat meat starts to tenderize. At this point I add minced cucumber pickles (pickle relish). When the meat reaches near-desirable tenderness, I finally add all the remaining ingredients to thicken the sauce, put in more flavors, and give it the hotness that Batangas kaldereta is known for: canned liver spread (Reno brand); peanut butter; grated cheese; and hot chili juice extract. Simmer a bit, and it's done.