My Lunch Guisado Recipe

I decided to do another food posting here. One of my jobs as a stay at home mother (SAHM) is to feed not only the kids, but also my husband lunch and dinner. Some days my cooking is nothing but a sandwich and some chips but some days I do actually cook. I didn't know what a "guisado" was until I moved to Honduras. I was struggling to find things to cook with my new role as a SAHM. My husband says, "why don't you cook a good guisado?". Huh? What's that? The following day my dear husband showed me how to cook his version. It was good. Very salty, but good. Hondurans have a way of making things very, very salty in my opinion.

Okay, so I found out that "guisado" is "stew" in Spanish. I have made stew before. The kind that you might want to eat on a cold day with dumplings on top. But that is slop to my husband and he pretty much refuses to eat it. Now this other kind of stew - aka guisado - is acceptable.

I have played around with making this since I learned of this dish and kind of follow the same kind of recipe all the time now. You can make it with chicken, which is very delicious too. Sometimes I throw in different kinds of veggies. Corn is a good one. Below is a recipe for my beef version I made for lunch the other day. I'm not the best at writing out recipes and usually my measurements can vary. That's the beauty of guisado - it's very flexible! Maybe you will want to try it too.

Mamasprout's Carne Guisado recipe

Ingredients

• 1-2 pounds top sirloin (cut into 1-inch cubes)
• Adobo seasoning
  
• 1-2 tsp salt or to taste
  
• pepper to taste
• 3 garlic cloves minced or pressed
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 2 medium potatoes, cubed
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce (I use regular pasta sauce)
• 1/4 cup sofrito (can sub with pasta sauce)
  
• 1/4-1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 c chopped fresh spinach
  
• 1-2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro plus some for garnish
• water as needed
  

Directions

Cube and season meat with adobo. Heat a little oil in a lg skillet over medium heat and place meat in when hot to sear. Cover and simmer until meat is about 3/4 cooked. Next, add 1 tablespoon of oil to meat and add onion, bell pepper, garlic, tomatoes, and potatoes. Let cook until onion and pepper are soft. Add spinach, oregano, cilantro, and stir in 1 minute. Add tomato sauce, sofrito and a little bit of water and simmer for approximately 20 minutes over low to medium heat or until potatoes are done. Add a little water and cover if it becomes too thick. Salt and pepper to taste as it's cooking.

Serve with fluffy rice. Good with cheese on top too and of course cilantro to garnish. Buen provecho!

p.s. if you use stew meat or another tough red meat, a pressure cooker is invaluable to speed cooking time.