Good Eats: Carne Guisada

Here's my first attempt at putting a wonderful recipe on my blog. I am an avid food lover. Being on a budget means that I've got to do the cooking if I want some good food. So if your nightly dinner routine needs a boost, try this recipe next week. Carne guisada is a tex-mex, slowly cooked, stew meat in a sort of gravy sauce. I could eat it every day. It can be cooked with pork, beef or chicken, but pork is my favorite. Now please excuse my amateur stab at this. I am no Pioneer Woman. The counter stains are real, the spices are mostly Walmart brand, and the camera shots are one step up from a disposable camera! Here we go!

The list of ingredients; Beef Stew Meat, Oil, Flour, Water, Tomato Sauce, Cumin, Garlic Powder, Pepper, Chili Powder, Salt

First, you brown your meat in a piping hot skillet with oil. I like to get the pan literally smoking hot to get a nice brown on the meat. Warning: Be very careful putting the meat in your skillet. The ugly burn scar on my stomach is testament to the tragedy that can happen if your not paying attention to what you are doing.

When the meat juices begin to evaporate (or after about 2 minutes) add your flour. Stir around till flour browns. You see those nice little crumbles in the pan mean extra goodness. Throw the meat and all other ingredients into a crock pot on low for about 6 hours.

Then magic appears in the crock pot! You will end up with incredibly tender meat and a delicious gravy/stewy sauce. Serve with tortillas (to dab up all the good sauce) or Mexican rice!

Carne Guisada

2 lbs. Stew Meat (pork or beef, use only 1 lb. if your not feeding a huge crowd)

2 tsp. vegetable oil
2 Tbs. flour
2 c. water
1 c. tomato sauce (or juice, or paste, or whole tomatoes)
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. chili powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 can green chilies (optional, only if you like spicy)
1 small onion chopped (optional)

Heat skillet with oil on high. Add meat and start frying. When meat juices begin to evaporate, add flour. Cook and stir till meat and flour is browned. Add meat and the rest of the ingredients to the crock pot. Cook on low for about 6 hours. Serve with flour tortillas or over rice.