Carne Guisada, A Staple

Bite size pieces of tender stewed meat covered in a rich earthy gravy is delectable all by itself. Pour it over a taco with rice and cheese and it is love. The T&T recipe comes from my aunt whose Carne Guisada will always be better than mine even though I follow her recipe. Not having her recipe written down as it is burned into the fibers of my brain, I had to find one similar for you to follow such as this one here.

My Aunts Ingredients:

2 lbs round steak, 1-2" cubes

2 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoons flour

1 yellow onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, whole

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon comino

1 small handful cilantro

1 small bay leaf

salt, pepper to taste

1 cube pollo de tomate

3 cups water

Instructions:

In a searing dutch oven, brown meat. Remove meat. To pot, cook onion until translucent. Toss meat with flour to evenly coat. Add garlic and meat to onions, cook briefly to remove white coloring of flour. Add remaining ingredients, cook on low until meat is tender, almost falling apart. Add water if needed. Test for salt and pepper.

Scaled for Likability: Great

Carne Guisada is one of my earliest memories of learning to cook Tex-Mex food. I was not even in Kindergarten, standing on a phone book on a high chair at the stove stirring meat in a pot big enough to place a five year in! Waiting for the meat to cook took forever and my time was filled by sorting pinto beans and then cooking them. With beans cooking, tortillas were made and there was always extra for a simple butter tortilla snack after a hard mornings work. Life was simple.

The only downside to carne guisada is it not budget friendly and left overs never last long enough. At least not at this table.

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Eating Waffles

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