Carne Guisada

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg braising beef, in large cubes
• juice of 1 bitter orange, or 1 orange and 1 lime
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp salt
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 3 culantro leaves, or a handful of coriander
• 600 ml beef stock or water
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 potatoes, in large chunks

Method

1. Season the beef

   Toss the beef with the bitter orange juice, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper and leave it for at least half an hour. Bitter orange is the Dominican marinade acid; an orange squeezed with a lime is the nearest thing to it.

   30 min

2. Burn the sugar

   Heat the oil in a heavy pot and let the sugar darken to the colour of dark tea. Every Dominican guiso starts here — the colour of the finished sauce is decided in this minute, not by the tomato.

   3 min

3. Brown in batches

   Lift the beef out of its marinade, shaking off the garlic so it does not burn, and brown it hard in two batches. Crowding the pot is the single most common way this dish ends up grey and thin.

   15 min

4. Sofrito

   Return all the beef, add the onion, pepper, tomatoes, tomato purée and culantro and stir until the vegetables collapse into the fat.

   7 min

5. Low and slow

   Add the stock and bay, bring to a bare simmer, cover and cook for an hour and a quarter. It should barely bubble; a rolling boil tightens the beef instead of loosening it.

   1 h 15 min

6. Potatoes last

   Add the potatoes and cook uncovered for another twenty-five minutes, until they are tender and have thickened the sauce. Putting them in earlier turns them to mush and the gravy to paste.

   25 min

7. Rest

   Take it off the heat and leave it ten minutes before serving, or better, make it the day before. Like every braise it is better reheated.