Mechado

A popular stew of beef cooked in potatoes, mechado was traditionally prepared as a roll of beef with a strip of pork fat in the center. The pork fat looked like a mitsa or candle wick in the middle of the beef "candle," giving it the name mitsa-do.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. beef round
  
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  
• 1 onion, sliced
  
• 2 medium-sized potatoes, quartered
  
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
  
• 8 peppercorns
  
• 1 small can tomato sauce
  
• 1 bay leaf
  
• 2 cups water
  
• 1 lemon's worth of lemon juice
  
• salt and pepper
  

1. Slice beef in serving pieces. Brown in a little cooking oil, then set aside.
   
2. In a saucepan, saute garlic, onion and tomato sauce.
   
3. Stir in meat and let it simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.
   
4. Add lemon juice, soy sauce, peppercorns, potatoes, bay leaf and salt.
   
5. Continue cooking until meat is tender and liquid has evaporated.