Mechado or Mitsado

Mechado was prepared on " our meza" or table over the weekend.

We havent had any kind of red meat for the last give and take six months. It has been fish,vegetables and poultry. So since we have been good, I believe we deserve to indulge once in awhile so we could keep up with our new way of healthy eating so we dont crave for it.

It was a weekend so I made one hearty meal. I've made some mechado, I've blanched some vegetables consists of broccoli, carrots, snow peas and green beans, for drinks we had some ice cold lemonade and made some semi-homemade cinnamon streusel muffin made by yours truly ( will be posted next) .

Anyway mechado is pork or beef braise in tomato and onion/shallots sauce. There is only one way of cooking it but ingredients may vary according to your taste. Some dont use tomato or tomato sauce at all, or vinegar or pork fat, or soy sauce.

If you are goin' to cook it ala adobo you need to marinate your beef or pork in adobo mixture such as soysauce,vinegar,garlic,sugar and ground pepper.

After that the procedure would be the same...

Ingredients:

Beef or pork

pork fat ( a must to some but optional to us, so in our case I skip it.)

2 onions or if shallots about 7 cups of it ( shallots are absolutely a must in my case lol )

4 -6 tomatoes to skip using tomato sauce.

Bay laurel leaf

3-4 rosset potatoes quartered and well browned.

Atswete or achuete power dissolve in water

Salt and sugar if did not marinate in adobo mixture.

Procedure:

Saute tomatoes and shallots or onions and set aside.

In the same pan, fry beef or pork until browned. ( whole beef round or pork butt cut into 2 lenght wise or cut into big chunks so it could be sliced later on when serving this is normally done to have nice presentation during special occasions) In my case I cut it into semi-big chunks, I could serve it as is since it is not too big and still have the option of slicing it when serving.

Need to brown the meat. When the meat is browned add the sauted tomatoes, shallots or onions and laurel bay leaf. Pour the aswete or achuete/ water mixture and some of the left over marinade mixture of the adobo. Cover and let it simmer. When almost done add the potatoes.

Cook until meat is done.

Slice the meat and top it with potatoes and sauce.

Serve hot with steam rice, blanched vegetables and ice cold drink.