Food knows no boundaries, and we are lucky to be living in times when we have access to both ingredients and recipes from across the world. In the pre-COVID times, there are times when I would not take my lunch from home to work. I would invariably end up ordering a burrito bowl or a Mexican rice bowl. The bowl generally comes with a layer of rice at the bottom and is topped with meat of choice, beans, salsa, sour cream, guacamole and salads. That is my favorite lunch ever. But ever since the lockdown I haven't had any Mexican food. Finally, after four months my craving gave away and I decided to prepare my own version of Mexican food. I am seriously happy with the results.
You can use any ground meat for this dish, the flavors might vary slightly. Experiment with the quantity and choice of beans too. While traditional recipes generally call for the use of canned tomatoes, I used fresh ones for my recipe.
Truth be told, I am huge on food miles and using local products as far as possible. But the more I try experimenting with food, the more I realize how easily a recipe can be adapted or certain ingredients substituted.
Ingredients:
500 gm red meat (mutton/lamb/beef)
150 gms dry kidney beans
2 onions, diced
1.5 tbsp garlic, crushed
1 red bell pepper, diced
5 small-medium tomatoes, diced (approx weight, 280 gms)
2 tbsp tomato puree, optional
2 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp paprika
1.5 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1 cube, chicken stock (if using liquid, about 300 ml)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp dried herbs (preferably marjoram, oregano)
2 tbsp oil (olive/ canola/ sunflower/vegetable)
Salt, to taste
Method:
Soak the kidney beans overnight. Boil it to edible consistency with a little salt. Strain and save the water.
Heat the oil in a deep saucepan or wok. Fry the onions till they turn slightly translucent.
Add the garlic and bell pepper and fry till it becomes slightly translucent.
Add the minced meat. The flame should be medium to high. The meat needs to caramelize and not stew.
Break the meat so that no lumps are formed. Add salt, paprika, cumin. Note that if using store-bought stock, the stock might have added salt.
Fry for some time till the meat looks well done and the raw smell of meat and the spices goes off.
Add the tomatoes and the chicken stock. Add the puree if using. Stir and bring to a nice saucy texture. Add some of the water leftover from boiling the kidney bean. Let the tomatoes melt into the meat. Simmer for sometime. Also, add the herbs at this point.
Finally, add the kidney beans. Add a little water and simmer for about ten more minutes. Add the ground pepper.
Check the taste and seasoning once and then add a little sugar. Bring it to a consistency that you prefer. It should not be very dry but not very watery either.
Accompaniment suggestion: Serve with steamed rice, tomato salsa topped with a helping of sour cream.
**Red kidney beans work best, but I ran out of those so used speckled kidney beans. You can decrease the quantity of kidney beans slightly.
** The weight of the kidney bean mentioned is before it was soaked overnight.
Comments
Post a Comment