Anne Cortz

This Filipino dish called Giniling, literally meaning “minced”, is simply ground meat, usually pork, cooked with diced carrots and potatoes in a tasty, tomato-tinged sauce. This Filipino Beef Giniling recipe, however, is a tiny variation swapping pork with beef. I wouldn’t be surprised either if my mom had done something like this but using combined beef and pork mince. The point is, feel free to use the meat you want.

It is tasty and cheap, a staple in a Filipino neighborhood’s turo-turo. For a small extra cost, you can also get one of the hard-boiled eggs marinating in the dish to complete the meal. As with almost all Pinoy dishes, giniling is best served over a steaming bed of white rice. Don’t forget to ladle in some of the sauce too.

Filipino Beef Giniling

• 500 g minced beef
• 1 large potato, diced (around 1 cup)
• 1 large carrot, diced (around 1 cup)
• ⅓ cup greed or red bell pepper, diced
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 4 cloves garlic
• 3 tbsp oil (for sauteing)
• salt (to taste)
• 4 hard boiled eggs (optional, to serve)

1. In a pot, saute garlic in oil over medium heat.

2. Add minced beef and cook until browned, stirring occassionally.

3. Add potatoes, carrots and bell peppers.

4. Add in the fish sauce, soy sauce and tomato paste.

5. Add water and simmer, covered, until cooked through.

6. Taste and adjust seasonings with salt, fish sauce or soy sauce.

7. Once cooked and off the heat, add in the whole hard-boiled eggs.

8. Serve beef giniling and a hard-boiled egg over plain, white rice.

Main Course

Filipino

Giniling is very easy to cook. It basically just involves putting everything in until it’s all cooked. The more time-consuming part of preparing this dish is cutting up the carrots and potatoes into tiny, diced pieces. Although there is no rule anywhere about the size of the dice. You can definitely save a little bit of time cutting them into larger cubes, if you prefer.

The hard-boiled egg is also lovely when it has been marinating in the sauce for a while. I would not have any qualms about having a few eggs sitting in the leftover giniling, and letting it marinate overnight in the fridge, ready for reheating for breakfast tomorrow.