Guest Blogger: Elizabeth Ann Quirino’s Beef Nilaga Short Ribs & Vegetables Stew

My Guest Blog­ger is Eliz­a­beth Ann Quiri­no who shares with us one of her recipes, a favorite Fil­ipino com­fort food, Nila­gang Baka — Beef Nila­ga Short Ribs and Veg­eta­bles Stew.

Eliz­a­beth Ann Besa-Quiri­no, based in New Jer­sey, is a jour­nal­ist, and a mul­ti-award-win­ner of the Plar­idel Writ­ing Awards and has been a recip­i­ent of the Doreen Gam­boa Fer­nan­dez Food Writ­ing Awards. She is the author of three cook­books Instant Fil­ipino Recipes: My Mother’s Tra­di­tion­al Philip­pine Food in a Mul­ti­cook­er Pot; My Mother’s Philip­pine Recipes and How To Cook Philip­pine Desserts, Cakes and Snacks. She has co-edit­ed the his­to­ry book States­man and Sur­vivor: Elpidio Quiri­no, 6th Pres­i­dent of the Philip­pines; and illustrated/created the food col­or­ing book Col­or and Cook. All her books are sold on Ama­zon. She is a cor­re­spon­dent for Pos­i­tive­ly Fil­ipino online mag­a­zine; and blogs about Fil­ipino home cook­ing on her site AsianInAmericaMag.com.

Bet­ty Ann, as she is fond­ly called, was born in the Philip­pines and raised in Tar­lac province where her way of life was mold­ed ear­ly on by her par­ents’ farm­ing and agri­cul­tur­al busi­ness. From the time she was a lit­tle girl, Bet­ty Ann learned how to cook tra­di­tion­al Philip­pine dish­es from her moth­er and has trans­formed these culi­nary skills to mod­ern day Fil­ipino cook­ing in her Amer­i­can kitchen. Bet­ty Ann is a mem­ber of the Inter­na­tion­al Asso­ci­a­tion of Culi­nary Pro­fes­sion­als (IACP-New York); the New York Women’s Culi­nary Alliance; the Asso­ci­a­tion of Culi­nary His­to­ri­ans of the Philip­pines. She is also on the board of advis­ers of the Pres­i­dent Elpidio Quiri­no Foundation.

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Nila­gang Baka — Beef Nila­ga Short Ribs and Veg­eta­bles Stew:
Instant Pot + Stove-top

By Eliz­a­beth Ann Quirino

My moth­er always said “If you can boil water, you can make nila­ga.” This is why I cook this clas­sic Fil­ipino dish when I don’t want to over­think a recipe. Nila­gang Baka or Beef Nila­ga Short Ribs and Veg­eta­bles is a clas­sic Fil­ipino one-pot meal of beef and veg­eta­bles boiled in clear broth and fla­vored with “patis” or fish sauce. This is one of the eas­i­est and most basic dish­es to pre­pare because ingre­di­ents are pantry sta­ples. This is also ide­al for those learn­ing how to cook Philip­pine cui­sine for the first time.

As we go through uncer­tain times, serve your fam­i­ly pip­ing-hot serv­ings of Nila­gang Baka, with its ten­der, fall-off-the bone beef chunks and fresh veg­eta­bles swirling in a savory broth. It’s like a warm hug in a bowl. This recipe and a video first pub­lished on AsianInAmericaMag.com.

*I offer two alter­na­tive ways to cook this in the pro­ce­dure: The tra­di­tion­al stove­top way, or a faster way in the cur­rent­ly pop­u­lar Instant Pot multicooker.

You may also check out the Youtube video show­ing the ingre­di­ents and how to cook this. Click here:

Course: Main Course, Soup
Cui­sine:  Asian, Filipino
Cook­ing Time: Stove­top – 3 hours; Instant Pot – 48 minutes
Serv­ings: 4 peo­ple

 Ingre­di­ents

• 4 pounds beef short ribs bone-in
• 4 Table­spoons veg­etable oil for saute
• 1 whole large onion chopped
• 2 cloves gar­lic minced
• 2 stalks scal­lion whites use white parts only, chopped
• 8 cups beef broth
• 1 Table­spoon patis (fish sauce)
• 2 large pota­toes peeled, quartered
• 1 bun­dle Napa cab­bage dis­card white bot­tom, slice leaves in large shreds
• 2 cups green beans sliced in 2‑inch pieces, ends trimmed
• 1 tea­spoon salt
• 1 tea­spoon ground black pep­per powder
• 2 stalks scal­lion greens, chopped for garnish
• steamed rice for serving

Instruc­tions

To cook stovetop:

1. In a large stock­pot, over medi­um high heat add the veg­etable oil. Sauté the gar­lic and onions. Add the scal­lions. Pour the patis (fish sauce).
2. Add the beef short ribs and beef broth. Sea­son with salt and black pep­per. Bring to a boil. Cov­er and con­tin­ue cook­ing over a low sim­mer. Cook beef short ribs for 2 to 3 hours over low heat till it is soft and ten­der and falls off the bone.
3. After 3 hours and the meat is soft, add the pota­toes and cook for anoth­er 25 min­utes more.  Last­ly, add the Napa cab­bage and green beans. Cook for 5 to 6 min­utes more till greens are soft and cooked. Gar­nish with chopped scal­lion greens.
4. Serve the soup meal while pip­ing hot with addi­tion­al patis (fish sauce) dip­ping sauces on the side and a bowl of rice.

To cook in the Instant Pot:

Click Sauté but­ton on key­pad. Pour the oil into the inside pot. When oil is hot enough, sauté the gar­lic, onions and scal­lions for 1 to 2 min­utes. Pour the patis.

Click Can­cel to turn off Sauté.

Add the beef, pota­toes and broth. Sea­son with salt and black pepper.

Cov­er and lock the lid. Make sure valve is set to Sealing. 

Click Meats/Stews and cook on High Pres­sure for 40 min­utes. When buzzer sounds to sig­nal cook­ing is done, do a Quick Release of the valve.

Care­ful­ly open the lid. Add the cab­bage and green beans. Stir for ingre­di­ents to blend.

Cov­er and press Keep Warm for 8 min­utes. The veg­etable greens should cook by then. Gar­nish with scal­lion greens.

Serve warm with the broth as soup. Serve with rice.

*Note: It takes about 17 min­utes after the Sauté func­tion is turned off, for the Instant Pot to come to a High Pres­sure and begin cook­ing again. For oth­er mul­ti-cook­er or pres­sure cook­er brands, please con­sult the man­u­al for exact time.

Read also:

Poet­ry by Elmer Omar Pizo (Cecil­i­a’s Guest Blogger) 

Diona Fil­ipino Poet­ry by Ralph Semi­no Galan (Cecil­i­a’s Guest Blogger) 

Tags: Philip­pines, Fil­ipino, cook­ing, recipes, stews, food, soup, Pinoy