Carne Guisada (Stewed Beef) Dominican style!

So Wednesday morning began in the kitchen once again. I woke up to the smell of home-made sofrito. "Abuela what are you making today," I asked. She said she was making Carne Guisada. Let me tell you a little something about Carne Guisda. It's basically the best way to eat beef, and like abuela says everything guisada is made the same. Carne Guisada is described as a Caribbean beef stew. But I'm not sure that's how I would describe it. Technically the beef used is beef stew meat but to me its just very seasoned beef cubes in a sauce. Abuela said she didn't ask me to join her because she had assumed that I had plans. Since I am unemployed there were no plans. So I decided to help her do some cooking. She told me to help her with the beef and start the moro de guandules (recipe included in previous post).

As we started to make the beef abuela started to talk about when she first started to cook. She said she was around 13 years old when she learned. "What made you start so young?" I asked. She said watching her grandma cook created a passion in her to learn to cook just like her. But her step mother is the one who taught her how to make gourmet foods she said. She claims that her step mom is the one who taught her how to make things like stuffed cabbage, stuffed peppers, cakes, gourmet pastilitos, pastelons(meat pies) and things of that nature. "My step mom was a gourmet chef,but my grandma taught me how to cook everything else," she said in spanish. It seems like that passion for cooking comes all the way back from my great great grandmother. How amazing is that? Generations of passionate cooks.

Let me show you a trick with the carne guisdao my abuela taught me", abuela said in spanish. When you add water always add it to the corners and not over the meat. That way it doesn't rinse out the seasonings," she said in spanish. Now I understood why she did that, I always saw her add the water to the corners but never understood why. It was just amazing to discover that the same bond my abuela had with her grandma with cooking I was now sharing with mine.
Below is our recipe:

Carne Gusiado (Stewed Beef)

Ingredients:
-2lb of round cut beef (beef stew meat)
-1 red onion/chopped
-4 garlic cloves / crushed
-1 green bell pepper/chopped
-1 red pepper/chopped
-1 tablespoon of adobo seasoning
-1teaspoon of grounded Oregano
-3-4 pieces of cilantro recao
-1 tablespoon of tomato paste
-1 cup of water
-1 packet of Sazon Goya seasoning (Con Culantro y Anchiote)
-2 cups of peeled, cubed potatoes(optional)
-salt and pepper to taste

1. Season the beef stew meat (we did it the night before). Sprinkle some Adobo, and sprinkle a little bit of grounded oregano. And than pour a little bit of Worchester sauce. And than pour a cap full of vinegar.
2. Then in a large pot pour a large cooking spoon full of olive oil and put in the seasoned meat.
3. Start to cook the meat until it browns, once it browns add the chopped onions, crushed garlic and chopped peppers.
4. Then get 1 tablespoon of tomato paste and add it to a cup of water. Pour it on the corners of the pot not directly over the meat. Than add 1 tablespoon of adobo seasoning and 1 teaspoon of Oregano. Than throw in 3-4 pieces of long cilantro recao.
5. Once the meat is really cooking lower the heat and add 1 packet of Sazon Goya Seasoning (Con Culantro y Anchiote) for more flavor.
6. (Optional) Then once the meat was completely cooked we transfered the beef cubes until another pot but left all the sauce in the original pot.
7. In the original pot with the sauce we added the 2 cups of peeled, cubed potatoes. Once the potatoes were tender we transferred the beef back into the original put.

¡ Que le Aproveche!