What is bagnet? It is crispy pork belly that hails from the Ilocos region in northern Philippines. In Central Luzon, lechon kawali is what we call crispy pork belly. Although similar, there is a difference in the preparation of bagnet and lechon kawali. In cooking bagnet, sun-drying and double frying gives the pork belly a crispier and lighter rind.
Where did the idea of substituting crispy pork belly for beef offal in kare-kare come from? From a carinderia in Manila. A decade ago when my daughters were in college, they told me about a place where the meat in traditional Filipino dishes were replaced with crispy pork belly.
In this recipe, thawed frozen bagnet (ordered online) was used. Lechon kawali may be substituted, of course. If deep frying and oil spatters bother you, it is very munch possible to cook crispy pork belly in the air fryer.
Air fried lechon kawali (crispy pork belly)
Simmer a slab of pork belly, drain and transfer to the air fryer. Thirty minutes later, you have perfectly cooked crispy pork belly with crackling skin.
With the meat component taken care of, let’s talk about the vegetables and the peanut sauce. To ensure that the vegetables do not turn soggy by the time the kare-kare is served, I opt to cook the vegetables separately rather than simmer them in the peanut sauce.
Bone broth — the kind that congeals as it cools — is essential here. It is what gives the kare-kare sauce its distinctive sticky and gelatinous texture. Just because we’re using crispy pork belly and not simmering beef oxtail or tripe doesn’t mean we can use any liquid for making the sauce. Again, bone broth is essential.
I like to cook the sauce in two steps. Why? Because two components of the sauce, the rice flour and annatto seeds need time to complete preparation.
How annatto (achiote) is used in cooking
Annatto or achiote is Bixa orellana — a natural red food coloring. It is sold as dried seeds, paste or powder for cooking and non-food uses. In the Philippines, we call it atsuete or atsuwete.
First, I heat the bone broth in a pot, take a cupful and soak the annatto seeds in it. It’ll take several minutes for the hot liquid to strip the color off the annatto seeds so I do this first.

Then, I toast the rice flour. This is what thickens the sauce and gives it a lovely nutty flavor and aroma. After toasting, the lightly browned rice flour needs to cool. As it does and while the annatto seeds soak in hot bone broth, the vegetables are cooked.
In the remaining broth in the pot, cook the vegetables. Not all of them together. Cabbage takes longest to cook so I prefer to start with it. After ten minutes of simmering, the cabbage wedges are scooped out and moved to a bowl.

Next, the sitaw (yard-long beans) go into the broth and simmered until tender. When done, the cooked sitaw joins the cabbage in the bowl.

Finally, the eggplants. I cannot overemphasize here the importance of not overcooking the eggplant slices. They continue to cook in the residual heat after they are scooped out of the hot bone broth. So, as soon as they soften, move them to the bowl with the cabbage and sitaw.
Now, we go to the second half of the process in making the peanut sauce. It consists of a few short steps but, don’t worry, these are simple steps which shouldn’t be a problem for people blessed with basic reading comprehension (I am aware that in the age of mobile phones and endless scrolling, possessing reading comprehension shouldn’t be presumed).

The annatto seeds which had been soaking in hot broth while the vegetable were being cooked have now rendered color and are ready to be strained and discarded. It’s just the soaking liquid that you need to give the kare-kare sauce a nice color. Add the cooled toasted rice flour to the annatto extract and whisk until smooth.

In a bowl, thin out the peanut butter with hot broth then blend that with the annatto-rice flour mixture. Now all you need to do is combine that with the broth to finish the kare-kare peanut sauce.

You may not need all the remaining bone broth in the pot. If you do, you might end up with a soupy sauce. And who wants that, right? I recommend that you scrape the peanut butter-annato-rice flour mixture into a clean pan, set the pan over medium heat and add hot broth, a cupful or so at a time, stirring after each addition and waiting for the liquid to simmer and thicken before adding more broth. That way, you get a sauce that is thick but still pourable. That’s how good kare-kare sauce should be.
After that, it’s all a matter of assembly. Remember to serve your bagnet kare-kare as soon as it is assembled. With rice, of course.
Ingredients
To tint and thicken the sauce
- 4 to 6 cups bone broth (it can be pork, beef or chicken)
- ¼ cup annatto seeds
- ¼ cup rice flour (NOT glutinous rice flour!)
Vegetables
- 1 small white cabbage cut into wedges
- 2 large eggplants (preferably the long Asian variety), cut into ¾-inch sliced
- 1 bunch sitaw (yard-long beans) cut into 2-inch lengths
Bagnet
- 1 kilogram cooked bagnet or use lechon kawali
- cooking oil for deep frying (omit if using home cooked lechon kawali)
Peanut sauce
- ¼ cup smooth peanut butter (we use sweetened)
- fish sauce
Instructions
Start making the kare-kare sauce
- Heat the beef broth in a large pan until boiling.
- Place the annatto seeds in a heat-proof bowl, ladle in a cup of hot broth and leave to steep.
- Toast the rice flour in a frying pan until nutty in aroma and just starting to turn a light brown.
Cook the vegetables
- Into the boiling broth, drop in the cabbage wedges and cook for about ten minutes. Scoop out and transfer to a bowl. Cool.
- Add the cut sitaw to the broth. Cook for ten minutes, scoop out and transfer to the bowl with the cabbage.
- Cook the eggplant slices in the broth for five minutes (do not overcook!), scoop out and add to the bowl with the sitaw and cabbage.
Make the peanut sauce
- Transfer the rice flour to a bowl.
- Strain the annatto water, add to the rice flour and mix to make a paste.
- Take half a cup of hot broth, pour into another heat-proof bowl and stir in the peanut butter until fully incorporated.
- Stir the rice flour-annatto paste into the peanut butter until blended.
- Pour the mixture into a pan set over medium heat.
- Ladle in the hot broth, half a cup at a time, while stirring constantly. How much broth you need to add depends on how thick you want your sauce. Stop adding broth when you have reached the consistency that you prefer.
- Bring the sauce to a simmer.
- Taste the sauce and add enough fish sauce to create a good balance of flavors.
Reheat the bagnet
- Heat enough cooking oil in a frying pan to reach a depth of at least three inches.
- Reheat the bagnet in hot oil until ultra crispy (skip if using newly cooked lechon kawali).
Assemble the bagnet kare-kare
- Cut the bagnet into portions and arrange in a bowl surrounded by the cooked cabbage, eggplant and sitaw.
- Ladle in the peanut sauce.