Nicaraguan Entree
INDIO VIEJO
INGREDIENTS
1 green bell pepper (1 more later)
10 garlic cloves
2 pounds skirt steak or chicken breast
1 onion (2 more later)
1 green bell pepper
2 onions
5 tomatoes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2⅓ cups masa harina or 12 corn tortillas
3 tablespoons sour orange juice or lemon juice
1 teaspoon achiote powder or sweet paprika
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh mint, spearmint, or cilantro
SPECIAL UTENSIL
personal kitchen angel
Serves 6. Takes 2 hours.
PREPARATION
Seed and dice 1 green bell pepper. Dice 1 onion. Cut each garlic clove into four pieces. Add meat, garlic cloves, 1 green bell pepper, 1 onion, and enough water to cover to large pot. Bring to boil using high heat . Reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 hour 40 minutes or until meat is tender to the fork. Strain and reserve meat/garlic/bell pepper/onion. Use forks to shred meat. Save broth.
30 minutes before meat should be tender, seed and dice 1 green bell pepper. Dice 2 onions and tomatoes. Add diced bell pepper, onion, tomatoes, and vegetable oil to large pan. Sauté at medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until bell pepper and onion soften.
Add reserved meat/garlic/bell pepper mix, masa harina, sour orange juice, achiote, pepper, and salt. Stir constantly while adding enough reserved broth it obtains the consistency of a thick stew. Simmer on low for 10 minutes or until there are no flour lumps. Stir constantly. Dice mint. Garnish with mint.
TIDBITS
1) Maybe your guests hurt your feelings by asking for rice or fried plantains after you’ve cooked for two hours. In this case, visit your personal kitchen angel. She’ll fold her wings around you and say, “There, there.” You’ll feel all better.
– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.
My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.
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