Kaldereta is a beef-based stew incorporated with liver spread, not liver chunks. The stew typically uses goat meat, but for accessibility purposes, we will be using beef in this recipe. Also, this recipe uses an Instant Pot! But if you don’t have an Instant Pot, that’s fine! Just stew everything on low heat for 2 hours.
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs beef stew meat
- 1 ½ tbsp salt
- 6 small, yellow potatoes (use either yellow or red potatoes, NOT brown)
- ~12 baby carrots
- 1 whole bell pepper
- ½ large onion
- 3 garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp oil
- ½ cup liver spread (pork liver spread is used in the video, but you may use chicken or beef liver spread as well)
- 1 can tomato sauce
- 2 bay leaves
- Ground black pepper
- 1 cup peas
- Olives (as many as you like)
Directions:
- Salt the beef, pressing the salt into the meat well. Set aside.
- Cut each of the potatoes in half. If you have 3 medium potatoes instead, cut them into quarters.
- Take the carrots and combine them with the potatoes in the same bowl. Set aside for now; they will be cooked together later.
- Take the bell pepper, clean out the seeds and stem, and slice them into 1-inch pieces.
- Chop up the half onion (the size doesn’t necessarily matter since it will melt into the stew after it is pressure-cooked).
- Crush the garlic and remove their skins.
- Take the Instant Pot, click the “Sauté” button and keep on “Normal” mode. Wait until the display says “Hot” and then add the oil. After the oil heats up for a couple of minutes, add the garlic and the onions. Sauté these until the onions are a little translucent.
- Add the beef, and brown it on all sides. There is no beef stock required for this recipe since the juices from this meat will act as the stock.
- Dump the liver spread into the pot and stir well until it fully integrates into the sauce. Follow this up with the whole can of tomato sauce.
- Add 2 bay leaves into the pot, and then secure the lid, with the vent closed. Press “Cancel” to turn off the cooking, and then press “Pressure Cook” and put it on “High”. Use the plus (+) and minus (-) buttons to set the timer to 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes of cooking, push open the vent to release all the steam. In the video, I use a towel to control the steam coming out. Open the lid.
- Throw in the potatoes and carrots, and then season with ground black pepper. If the stew needs, add a bit more salt. Mix everything together, and then put the lid back on.
- Follow the pressure cooking instructions in step 10, but this time, set the timer to only 4 minutes.
- When the 4 minutes are up, fully release the steam through the vent before opening the lid. Add in the bell peppers, peas, and as many olives as you like for sautéing. Mix well.
- Press the “Cancel” button, and then press the “Sauté” button to let the pot cook, uncovered, on the default 30-minute sauté mode. Let the pot cook until the bell peppers have cooked to the tenderness you prefer, for about 3-5 minutes.
- Finally, manually turn off the pot. Serve the kaldereta after one full night of absorbing flavor, or serve right away!