Beef Caldereta Instant Pot is a Filipino dish made of beef, potato, carrots, and bell pepper stewed in a hearty sauce made of tomatoes, liver paste, and cheese. When cooked in a pressure cooker, kaldereta can be ready sooner than when prepared in the traditional stovetop.
What is Caldereta or Kaldereta
Caldereta or Kaldereta is a meat stew from the Philippines that typically uses goat (Kalderetang Kambing) or beef (Kalderetang Baka) as its meat. You can also find Chicken Caldereta and Pork Caldereta as variations to this dish.
The meat is stewed with vegetables and the Caldereta sauce is made more flavorful and thickened with liver paste and cheese. Vegetables may include tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, olives, bell peppers, and hot peppers. You can make it a mild Kaldereta dish or a Spicy Kaldereta using chili or chili flakes.
Caldereta’s name is derived from the Spanish word caldera meaning cauldron. The dish was brought to the Philippines by the Spaniards during their 300-year occupation in the Philippines.
Kaldereta is usually served during special occasions, parties, and festivities. You can also order Caldereta in Filipino restaurants.
Difference between Afritada, Menudo, Mechado and Kaldereta
Caldereta is similar to other Filipino tomato stew recipes like Afritada, Mechado, and Menudo but with a slight variation in ingredients. One may confuse it with the other so I’ve detailed the difference between all 4 tomato-based Filipino dishes:
Afritada may contain chicken or pork, potatoes, carrots, and bell peppers. Its sauce isn’t as thick as the others and is on the sweeter side. You would use lesser ingredients when cooking afritada versus cooking caldereta. Try our Chicken Afritada Instant Pot Recipe.
Menudo is a tomato stew that has small cuts of pork, chopped liver, potatoes, garbanzo, raisins, and hotdog. Pork Menudo Instant Pot Recipe to follow.
Mechado is a beef stew that has thick tomato sauce with potatoes and carrots. Beef Mechado Instant Pot Recipe to follow.
Kaldereta usually uses beef or goat meat. It also has potatoes, carrots, and bell pepper. Kaldereta sauce has liver spread and cheese in them. I also used green peas and green olives in my Caldereta recipe.
Caldereta Ingredients
The list of ingredients for Caldereta is a little longer than other Filipino recipes like chicken tinola or arroz caldo that utilizes maybe only 4-5 ingredients. I’ve put in notes below on which Kaldereta ingredients you can omit so you can save on cost and maybe even skip the trip to the supermarket if you already have the other ingredients at home.
- Cooking Oil
- Garlic – I always used fresh garlic in my recipes, the garlic in jars just doesn’t produce the same taste which is very important when building flavors for stews. I used a mini food processor to help me with all the mincing as I cooked with minced garlic all the time.
- Yellow or White Onion – I bought a big onion so I only used 1/4 of it.
- Water
- Tomato Paste
- Liver Spread – My preferred liver spread brand to use for kaldereta is Underwood. It’s hard to find liver spread at US supermarkets, I have to get them at a Filipino supermarket or online.
- Fish Sauce or Patis (in Tagalog) – If you’ve never used fish sauce before, this is a staple in any Filipino kitchen as a lot of Filipino recipes used fish sauce. You can also find this in Vietnamese and Thai cooking. They are made of anchovies and may be called anchovy sauce but to be precise they have the consistency of soy sauce but the color is translucent golden brown. Besides Caldereta, I also use it for Sinigang na Baboy, Pinakbet, etc.
- Crushed Red Pepper – If you are serving this kaldereta dish to young kids, I would recommend only adding 1/8 tsp to give the recipe that flavor boost but not necessarily making it spicy. At 1/4 tsp, it is already a little spicy for them.
- Salt
- Ground Black Pepper
- Dried Bay Leaves – Bay Leaves can be found in jars or bags at the spice section of the supermarket. It it also used to cook Filipino Adobo.
- Beef Bottom Round Roast or Beef Brisket – I’ve used both meat for cooking beef kaldereta and do prefer to use the beef brisket but the beef bottom round roast would be cheaper.
- Potatoes – When cutting to cubes, try to make it closer to size with the sliced carrots so they will be cooked more evenly or the bigger potato will not be soft enough. I recommend cutting between 1″ – 1.5″ cubes.
- Carrots – You can buy a bag and used the rest of the carrots to cook Filipino chicken curry or afritada.
- Red or Green Bell Pepper – You can use either green or red bell pepper or a combination but since I was already adding green peas and green olives, I added red bell pepper instead for contrast in color.
- Grated Cheese – I used freshly grated mild cheddar cheese and let it melt into the kaldereta sauce. If you’re in the Philippines, I recommend using Quik-Melt.
- Green Peas – Green peas are optional but if you already have frozen peas in the fridge, might as well add them to your caldereta.
- Green Olives – Olives are also optional when cooking Kaldereta. Usually when you go to a sit-down Filipino restaurant, their kaldereta would include olives while a Filipino turo-turo restaurant would not have them. I actually like Kaldereta with olives, it adds a hint of sour flavor to the dish. Again, if you’re cooking for young kids, they might not like it though.
How to Cook Beef Kaldereta in an Instant Pot
Just like other Instant Pot Filipino Recipes like Bulalo or Kare-Kare, Beef Kaldereta can benefit from being cooked in a pressure cooker like Instant Pot to tenderize the meat faster. This Beef Kaldereta Instant Pot Recipe can shorten tenderization by half rather than cooking via the stovetop method.
Beef Caldereta Instant Pot Recipe
1. Prepare the Aromatics & Protein
Peel and chop the onions and peel and mince the garlic. Cut the beef for kaldereta to cubes.
2. Saute the Aromatics
On the Instant Pot, press SAUTE and add cooking oil. Saute the onion and garlic for about a minute until the onion is translucent. Press CANCEL.
3. Add the Caldereta Sauce Ingredients
Fill the pot with water up to the 2 cup line. Add tomato paste and liver spread, break it down into the sauce. Add fish sauce, chili flakes, salt, pepper, and bay leaves. Blend.
4. Add the Meat for Caldereta
Add the beef to the beef kaldereta sauce and blend.
5. Cook the Beef Caldereta in the Instant Pot
Close the lid, turn the steam release handle to “SEALING”. Press MEAT/STEW and adjust to 35 minutes cooking time.
6. Prepare the Vegetables
In case you haven’t done so, prepare the vegetables while the beef caldereta is cooking. Peel and slice the carrots to 1/2″ long, peel and cut the potatoes to cubes, and cut the bell pepper to squares and discard the seeds. After this step, the caldereta is not done cooking yet, you can go ahead and do other things and come back after around 30 minutes.
7. Cook the Vegetables
Once the beef caldereta is done cooking (you’ll hear a beep), move the steam release handle to “VENTING” & open the lid once the valve pin has gone down then add the carrots, potatoes, and bell pepper. Blend the vegetables with the sauce. Close the lid. Set the steam release handle to “SEALING”. Press MANUAL and set cooking time to 1 minute.
8. Melt the Cheese with the Caldereta Sauce
Once the vegetables are done cooking, move the steam release handle to “VENTING” and open the lid once the valve pin has gone down then transfer the beef and vegetables to a serving dish. Add the grated cheese to the Instant Pot and stir and let it melt in the caldereta sauce.
9. Optional: Add green peas & olives
Move the beef and vegetables to a serving dish leaving the sauce in the Instant Pot. Add the green peas & olives to the Instant Pot and press SAUTE, let the sauce bubble for about 2 minutes then press CANCEL. Pour everything into the serving dish and serve your Instant Pot Beef Kaldereta with steamed rice. Enjoy!
More Instant Pot Filipino Recipes:
- Chicken Afritada Instant Pot Recipe
- Filipino Chicken Curry Instant Pot Recipe
- Kare-Kare Instant Pot Recipe
- Pinakbet Instant Pot Recipe
- Arroz Caldo Instant Pot Recipe
- Pork Sinigang Instant Pot Recipe
- Chicken Adobo Instant Pot Recipe
- Bulalo Instant Pot Recipe
- Tinolang Manok Instant Pot Recipe
Plus, Drink and Dessert Recipes:
- Milo Dinosaur Recipe
- Taro Smoothie Recipe
- Panna Cotta Recipe
- Avocado Shake Recipe
- Green Juice Recipe
Beef Caldereta Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 8 cloves or 3 tablespoon garlic - minced
- 1/2 yellow or white onion - chopped
- 1.5 cups water - fills to 2 cup line when onion and garlic is in pot
- 5 tablespoons tomato paste
- 3 tablespoons liver spread
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon chili flakes (start at 1/8 tsp if serving to young kids)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 3 pieces bay leaves
- 2 pounds beef bottom round roast or beef brisket - cubed
- 1 large potato - cubed
- 2 carrots - sliced
- 1 red or green bell pepper - cut into squares
- ½ cup grated cheese
- 1 cup green peas (optional)
- 1/4 cup green olives (optional)
Instructions
1. Prepare the Aromatics & Protein. Peel and chop the onions and peel and mince the garlic. Cut the beef to cubes.
2. Saute the Aromatics. Press SAUTE and add cooking oil. Saute the onion and garlic for about a minute until the onion is translucent. Press CANCEL.
3. Add the Sauce Ingredients. Fill the pot with water up to the 2 cup line. Add tomato paste and liver spread, break it down into the sauce. Add fish sauce, chili flakes, salt, pepper, and bay leaves. Blend.
4. Add the Protein. Add the beef to the beef kaldereta sauce and blend.
5. Cook the Beef Caldereta in the Instant Pot. Close the lid, turn the steam release handle to "SEALING". Press MEAT/STEW and adjust to 35 minutes cooking time.
6. Prepare the Vegetables. In case you haven't done so, prepare the vegetables while the beef caldereta is cooking. Peel and slice the carrots to 1/2" long, peel and cut the potatoes to cubes, and cut the bell pepper to squares and discard the seeds.
7. Take a break or do some chores. The beef caldereta is not done cooking, you can leave and do other things for about 30 minutes.
8. Cook the Vegetables. Once the beef caldereta is done cooking (you'll hear a beep), move the steam release handle to "VENTING" & open the lid once the valve pin has gone down then add the carrots, potatoes, and bell pepper. Blend the vegetables with the sauce. Close the lid. Set the steam release handle to "SEALING". Press MANUAL and set cooking time to 1 minute.
9. Melt the Cheese with the Caldereta Sauce. Once the vegetables are done cooking, move the steam release handle to "VENTING" and open the lid once the valve pin has gone down then transfer the beef and vegetables to a serving dish. Add the grated cheese to the Instant Pot and stir and let it melt in the caldereta sauce.
10. Optional: Add green peas & olives. Move the beef and vegetables to a serving dish leaving the sauce in the Instant Pot. Add the green peas & olives to the Instant Pot and press SAUTE, let the sauce bubble for about 2 minutes then press CANCEL. Pour everything to the serving dish and serve your Instant Pot Beef Kaldereta with steamed rice. Enjoy!
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