Dinner · 120 min · filipino

Slow Mechado

A Filipino dinner built around beef chuck and pork fat — on the table in 120 minutes. It is weeknight cooking that still hits your targets — 50 grams of protein per serving. It scales cleanly if you are cooking for more than one.

✓ USDA-verified nutrition data

Ingredients

• 2.5 lb Beef chuck
• 1/4 lb Pork fat
• 1/3 cup Soy sauce
• 1/4 cup Calamansi juice
• 1.5 cups Tomato sauce
• 2 Potatoes
• 1 Onion
• 5 cloves Garlic
• 2 Bay leaves

Steps

1. Cut the pork fat into thin strips and thread them through the beef chunks with a larding needle or the tip of a knife — the old technique keeps lean chuck juicy. No needle? Just tuck the strips into deep slashes.
2. Marinate the beef in soy sauce, calamansi juice, and garlic, 1 hour.
3. Sear the beef hard on all sides, 8 minutes; the crust is the sauce’s foundation.
4. Add the onion, tomato sauce, bay, and 3 cups water; braise covered 90 minutes at the barest simmer.
5. Add the potatoes for the last 25 minutes.
6. Uncover and reduce 10 minutes, until the sauce is thick and the beef surrenders to a fork. The larded fat will have melted into pure richness. Serve over rice.

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