Recipes that are simple and delicious.
I have mentioned this before, and since we are still fairly embedded in soup season in the Midwest, I love French onion soup. I’m not sure I am the biggest fan of using a mandolin to slice lots and lots of onions, but the simple, […]
I live a fairly standard, and boring life at this point in time. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t get that bored and I do everything I can to remain active, and occupied. It’s in my DNA and I often tell my wife that I […]
I talk a lot about tacos. I often say that if there was one thing I could eat every single day that it would be a taco. Then days later I might say pizza. Regardless, tacos have a special place in my heart. I recently stated to my wife that I would love to have a hot counter in my kitchen where we could have small pans with a nice gauge that could hang there, warm great meats and vegetables all day long, and I could just warm up a tortilla and fold whatever I wanted (or had) into it and enjoy. Every day. That’s not going to happen, I already know that!
To me a great taco comes down to two things, for the most part. A great tortilla, and a good filling. Simple. Throw in some diced onion and cilantro, maybe a squirt of lime and it is game over. Sauces on the table… well no need to get me started. Taco love? You betcha.
Let me start by saying tacos guisada are not the prettiest of things. This is not going to look like your standard, awesome tacos like the chorizo and potato, the pulled beef, or even the mushroom taco, but trust me when you bite into this carne guisada taco you will be in heaven.
Let’s get started.
Ingredients:
Just to note, carne guisada is slow cooked, braised if you will, and you will want to try to retain the large chunks of beef. Upon final cooking it will be easy to fall apart, but do your best and not shred it apart. Keep the chunks in tact and figure out a way to softly press it into a warm tortilla. Trust me.
Start by seasoning the bite-sized beef, all over, with salt and pepper. Let this hang out for a few minutes.
Next, begin heating a large pot on medium-high heat. Add in half of the oil and once it begins to simmer. Add in half of the beef, not stacking it up on top of one another, and let it cook for a few minutes before even thinking of touching it. The goal is to brown each and every side of the beef. You will do this in batches as well. Once the first batch of beef is browned, remove with a slotted spoon, set aside, add more oil to the pot, then add in the second (or third) batch of beef. Continue to brown, then remove and place with the other beef to hang out.
Next, toss in the onions, cumin, poblano, and garlic. Give that a good stir and let the onions begin to sweat on medium heat. Start scraping the bottom of your pan, moving around the vegetables, with a wooden spoon and let them just get slightly tender.
Add in the chopped tomatoes, give a good stir, then add in the beef. Give another good stir, cook another minute or two, then add in the beef stock and water. Stir, season with a pinch of salt, cover, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for about 4 hours.
Can you do this in the slow cooker? You bet, but make sure you brown your beef ahead of time. Instapot? You got it.
After a few hours, open the lid, stir and check for the tenderness of the meat. If you fork or spoon it and it falls apart, you are all set.
Get your tortillas ready. Get your cilantro and onion ready. Got sauces? Get those ready. Feel free to plate family style with a covered container of tortillas, bowls of sauces and sides, and a bowl of carne guisada, and get to it.
My wife and kids loved the carne guisada, I think as much as though they were already thinking what else the stewed meat would be great with. I’ll be honest, I was thinking the same thing. I was thinking the carne guisada would be great over mashed potatoes, folded into a quesadilla, mixed in with noodles, or eating it alone. It’s that good, and trust me stewed beef is and could be one of your favorite taco fillings! Hope you enjoy.
It seems as though empanadas fill my mind about once a week. I love an empanada, as does the rest of my family, especially when made correctly. A recent attempt, I forgot what premade dough I was using, totally failed. Granted I did not deep […]
I probably say this too often when I reflect on some of my favorite sandwiches, in particular breakfast sandwiches of which a bacon, egg, and cheese is definitely top two on my list. I grew up with a basic egg sandwich, and I thought I […]
It seems that I am always buying too many bananas. Honestly I love bananas but I’m more into throwing one in an afternoon smoothie rather than choking one down in the morning. My intent is always there though and as I know my wife enjoys one for a morning snack, I am always hoping that my kids eat them as a grab and go item, but that is rarely the case. With that said, I always have a few left during the week where I quickly make the decision to freeze them for smoothie making. Not this week however!
I still think we are all trying to come off the sugar high from the Christmas holiday cookies I made, and believe it or not I still have in bags in the freezer! I have this fear in the back of my head that if we do not have any chocolate present or some form of dessert, well then there will be hell to pay. Kidding, but not really. So I decided to put those bananas to the side, and come up with another banana bread. This time with some simple twists that took it one more step to the awesome side.
Making this bread also allowed me to use some of of those holiday baking ingredients which was a win, win in my book. A delicious win, win that is.
Let’s get started.
Ingredients:
This recipe doesn’t get any better, and the result is a double chocolate bang of flavor that pairs so perfect with the brown sugar and the slight tartness from the bananas. Not only that but it is essentially one of those mix the dry into the wet, give a final mix and pour into a pan. Bake, rest, and eat.
Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees.
Next, add the dry ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix well.
Next to a larger mixing bowl, add in the bananas, butter, egg, oil, sugar, and vanilla. Mix until nice and smooth then slowly add in the dry mix. Continue to mix until you have a smooth batter, then pour in the chocolate chips and fold evenly into the batter.
As you notice, I used a bundt pan. I used this only due to the fact that I could not locate my bread pan, and as my daughter received this as a gift some time ago, I figured why not use it. I LOVE THE BUNDT PAN!
Spray the inside of the pan with cooking spray or lightly coat with butter. Pour the mixture into the pan and place into the preheated oven for 50 minutes. Perform the usual knife insert about 50 minutes in. Once there is no batter sticking to the knife, remove it from the oven and let cool for about 20 minutes before flipping the pan over onto a serving plate. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and dig in!
I’ll admit that I was the first to slice and eat, and boy oh boy was this bread awesome. It was warm so the chocolate chips were nicely melted. That seemed like a special moment. Kidding but not really. Regardless, I called the kids in to have a slice and they were instantly hooked. Let’s just say I got the bananas in them one way or another, and the bread was gone in less than one day. That’s always a great sign of a delicious recipe! Hope you enjoy!
Looking for more fruit related recipes? Try these below:
