The Pochero Purveyor

Pochero is another dish best prepared when there are a lot of people to share it with. Doing all the prep work may seem a bit daunting, so I'll be sharing with you some tips and tricks of my own.

By the way, for those who don't know what puchero/pochero is, it's a casserole dish of Spanish influence, that consists of boiled chicken, beef, sausages and veggies. For a family of 6, (of which 5 are male), I make a medium sized pot and rarely have leftovers Ü From start to finish, this would take about an hour and a half to make, but it's all worth it Ü 

Some purists might disagree, but I've got to feed several hungry mouths pronto, that's why the whole "slow cooking of the meats" wasn't used in this recipe.

beef kenchi cubes, assorted sausages,
chicken slices and Spanish paprika

soffritto ingredients: chopped onions, garlic,
peppercorns, bay leaf and tomatoes

plantains (saging na saba), carrots and
potatoes

leafy veggies are good for you Ü

Ingredients:

• 500 grams beef kenchie (foreshank)
• 200 grams chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 3 pieces chorizo de bilbao,  cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 pieces of any sausage/s of your choice, (I used Hungarian and some Ground Pepperoni) ,  cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1/3 c olive oil
• 1 medium sized onion, chopped
• 5 big, plump, juicy tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tbsp garlic, macerated and minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 5 peppercorns
• 2 tbsp Spanish Paprika
• 200 grams potatoes, cubed
• 2 pieces medium sized carrots, cubed
• 1 bundle, pechay tagalog, washed and separated
• 1 small cabbage, halved
• 5 pieces saba (plantains), skin removed, and cut in half
• 10 pieces green beans, cleaned 
• 2 c broth
• really goodfish sauce (patis)  to taste **our family's big on endorsing authentic special patis Malabon. The balance of sweet and salty and that wonderful aroma is so good that me and the kids would put a little in our rice, sans any viand and just enjoy the fish sauce.

parboil

good fish sauce is the secret to good pochero

Preparation:

1. Put your beef (whole) into the pressure cooker. Pressure cooking starts when you hear you cooker make that steam induced rocking sound. Do this for about an hour. You can cut it into cubes after it's been tenderized. While that's goıng on,
2. Parboil your potatoes, carrots and plantains in the same pot
3. Parboil your pechay, cabbage and green beans altogether
4. In a separate saucepan, (after the meat has softened), make a soffritto. Do this by heating up the olive oil and sauteing the onions, garlic, tomatoes, bay leaf and peppercorns. As the tomatoes soften, add the paprika and stir it in to prevent burning.
5. Throw in the chicken in the soffritto, followed by the sausages, stirring til the chicken is cooked. I personally prefer the breast due to its quick cooking time. When that's done, throw in the beef, making sure that all the meats get a good coating of the soffritto.
6. Pour in the broth til it boils. Season with salt and pepper, then put in the potatoes, carrots and plantains (I separate these coz the kids want to make sure if they're getting a potato or a plantain :P). Wait for it to boil again and don't freak out if you have this reddish oily thing on top of the broth. That's what you get when your paprika' s good and it blendsin well with the olive oil in the soffritto.
7. Season with good fish sauce (patis).Personally special patis Malabon rocks our world. If we can't get the real thing, Thai or Vietnamese patis works too.
8. Arrange the other veggies in a platter before ladling the the broth and its meaty goods in a bowl.  
9. Serve hot and enjoy!

that oily red stuff is basically your own homemade paprika oil

From Kitchen Wanderings, here's to a life full of flavor!