Mechado: Beef Stew

Beef Mechado Adaptation from Reynaldo Alejandro's The Philippine Cookbook

Beef Mechado is common ground for me and my husband.  It has the ingredients that he is familiar with (like beef, onions, potatoes and tomato sauce) and it has the memory of my mom's home cooked meal.

Despite the fact that I have eaten Mechado several times in my life, this is the first time I've cooked it.  It's not hard, but the recipe that I had was a little vague and lacked details that could've helped me prepare the dish better.  So I had to update the process, change some of the ingredients and mind the time for cooking.  I also researched online for a substitute for pimento, since I had resolved that I will refrain from going further than the grocery store across the street from my apartment.  After cooking this recipe, I realized it had similarities to beef bourguignon, but the fact that this is Filipino Cuisine makes it special.  I think this will definitely find its place in my recipe box.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs lean meat, cubed for stewing
• juice of one lemon
• 4 Tbsp soy sauce
• 6 oz of bacon
• 1 bay leaf
• 8 oz of tomato sauce
• 3 Tbsp sherry or cooking wine
• 3 cloves crushed garlic
• salt
• group black pepper
• 2 cups beef broth
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 large red bell peppers, finely diced
• 2 large onions, quartered
• 6 potatoes, quarted
• Tabasco (optional)

Modified Directions:

1.  Marinate beef in lemon juice and soy sauce.

2.  Make 2 lengthwise slits in the meat and insert the bacon strips.

3.  In a large pot, brown the meat.

4.  Add the bay leaf, tomato sauce, the marinade, sherry, garlic, salt and water beef broth.

5.  Cover the and simmer until the beef is tender.

6.  Remove meat and slice.

7.  Thicken with flour and butter.

8.  Add pimento diced red bell pepper, onions and potatoes with the meat to the thickened sauce.

I prefer to use meat that has already been cut into bite size pieces, so I skipped step # 2.

I marinated the meat in a zip lock bag and left it in the refrigerator for an hour (The recipe didn't really say exactly how long the meat had to marinate, so I guessed).

Since I am omitting step # 2, I rendered the bacon's fat and then use the fat to brown the meat.

While the bacon was cooking, which took around 20 - 30 minutes over low heat.  I started to chop the potatoes and onions.

Though it didn't say in the recipe, I cooked browned the meat in batches.  The recipe called for 2  - 3 lbs of meat, I bought 2.5 lbs, which I think was too much.  For future reference I will buy less meat.

Once I browned all the meat, I replaced it all back into the pot.  Then I added the bay leaf, tomato sauce, the marinade used for the beef, sherry, garlic, salt and water beef broth. I thought it would be better to use beef broth instead of water to give the stew more flavor.

I added the potatoes, finely diced bell peppers (to replace the pimento I do not have) and onions pot and simmer until the beef is tender.  I moved step # 8 sooner since I wanted the stew to have all the flavors of the onions and red bell peppers.  The meat will tenderize while the potatoes get cooked.  Since the beef was already sliced, I omitted step # 6.

I timed it and it took approximately 60 to 90 minutes.  I added flour and butter to the stew to thicken the sauce.

I let it simmer for another 30 - 45 minutes, to let the flour cook and also adding just a hint of chili (all I had was Tabasco) to make the stew a little spicy.

Serve warm with steamed white rice.