Recipe 104: Ground Beef (Giniling na Baka)

This is one of my personal favorites when I was a kid. I really loved eating this one especially when my father served this in our table. This is one of the easiest Filipino dishes to prepare. However, it was a disaster when I first tried to cook this one when I was a college student then. Basically, I learned cooking because of my father. Usually, once I cook, I tried to imitate my father’s recipes. Looking back when I was staying with my friends in a boarding house and I was trying to cook Pork Giniling for lunch for the first time. I remembered my papa was accustomed to use achiote seeds to make the food red so instead of using tomato paste I used the achiote seeds. However, it turned out to be a complete disaster because I poured the achiote seeds directly into the pan instead of dipping it first into a cup of water (then the water is the one added to the pan excluding the achiote seeds). In short, we never enjoyed our lunch because we have to remove the seeds in our mouth from time to time while we were munching the food. Epic fail! LOL


So instead of achiote seeds I used tomato paste in this recipe because the paste adds more thick, more reddish, and more taste to the sauce.  Plus you won't have the same mistake as i did before :) 

Giniling na Baka (Ground Beef)

Ingredients:

400 mg ground beef

Cooking oil

1 red onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 tomatoes, chopped and sliced

1 carrot, peeled and diced

1 potato, peeled and diced

1/2 c. frozen green peas

1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced

Black raisins

3 green chilis

1 tsp. fish sauce

Tomato paste

Salt and ground pepper

How to Cook:

1.  Heat oil in a pan.  

2.  Add onion and garlic and stir fry until onions look translucent.

3.  Add ground beef and cook until the meat becomes brownish.

4.  Add tomatoes and cook until tomatoes are mashed with the meat.

5.  Add the carrots, potatoes, green peas, bell pepper and raisin and stir well. Cover for ample minutes until peas, carrots and potatoes are tender.

6.  Add the tomato paste. (If you want to make the sauce more reddish and thicker, put more tomato paste. Add an ample amount water if it dries up).

7.  Season with fish sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Cover and simmer for 2 minutes and serve.

In the Middle East, since it’s quite hard to look for fresh vegetables in the market, you can buy packed frozen mixed vegetables instead. The packed mixed vegetables include green peas and carrots. So this may save you time for preparing the ingredients. This recipe is good for 3-4 persons.

Enjoy your meal!!