Carne Desmechada (Colombian Shredded Beef)
Skirt steak simmered until it falls apart, shredded, and then cooked again with hogao and tomato paste. Nearly two hours in a pot or under an hour in a pressure cooker, and it goes with rice, patacones or arepas.
Servings: 4
Calories: 323kcal
Ingredients
- 2 Lb skirt steak
- 9 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
- 1 cup hogao the Colombian tomato and scallion sofrito
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ onion
- A bit of thyme
- 1 teaspoon tomato paste
Instructions
- Put the meat, the water, the thyme, the bay leaf, the onion, the salt and the pepper in a pot. Simmer until the meat pulls apart easily with a fork: about an hour and a half in an ordinary pot, or 40 minutes in a pressure cooker from the moment it whistles.
- Lift the meat out and keep a cup of the broth. Let the meat cool and shred it with a fork or with your hands.
- In a pot, put the shredded meat, the hogao, the tomato paste and that cup of broth, and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring now and then.
- Serve hot. It goes with white rice, with patacones or with corn arepas.
Notes
Skirt steak does not shred in half an hour. It is a working muscle full of connective tissue, and that tissue only breaks down into gelatine after a long, slow simmer. An hour and a half in an ordinary pot is realistic; a pressure cooker gets there in about forty minutes from the moment it whistles. The signal is better than the clock: press a piece with a fork and it should come apart in strands without resistance. If it still holds together, it needs more time, and no amount of extra hogao will fix it later. Keep a cup of the broth. The third step needs it, and it is the only liquid in the final stage: the shredded meat, the hogao and the tomato paste would be dry without it. The other eight cups can go into a soup. Hogao is the base of this dish rather than a garnish, which is why it goes in by the cup. It is worth making it fresh rather than using a jarred sauce.
Nutrition
Calories: 323kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 50g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 136mg | Sodium: 964mg | Potassium: 845mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 48IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 74mg | Iron: 4mg