The BEST Mexican Beef Stew You'll Ever Make, Carne Guisada (2 Secret Ingredients)

#carneguisada #mexicanfood #beefstew 📖 My mother's Tuesday pot came out of La Cocina de Bertha: the chile colorado it grew from is on page 153, and page 289 tells you how to freeze the double batch. Every recipe in that kitchen, 372 pages: https://berthascookbook.com Gray beef in brown water, and a gravy that tastes like flour and the little packet. It was never you, mija, and it was never the two hours. It was two ingredients nobody ever told you about, because neither one comes in a packet. Secret one is three dried guajillo chiles toasted on a dry comal. Secret two is a spoon of masa harina instead of flour, whisked into COLD water, in the last ten minutes. HONEST FIRST: in Texas, carne guisada is cumin, tomato and a flour gravy, no chile. In my mother's kitchen the beef stew was chile colorado, all chile and no tomato (page 153 and 288). Tonight is the one in between, the Tuesday pot. ⭐ CARNE GUISADA, MY MOTHER'S TUESDAY POT (serves 6, about 3 hours, most of it the pot alone) • 2½ lb beef CHUCK ROAST, cut yourself into 1½-inch pieces. Never the "stew meat" tray (lean cubes cook to sawdust) • 1½ tsp salt, plus to taste · 2 tbsp manteca or oil • SECRET 1: 3 dried guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded • 3 Roma tomatoes (or half a can) · 1 white onion, chopped, plus 1 thick slice • 5 cloves garlic (3 for the pot, 2 for the blender) • 1 tsp Mexican oregano · ½ tsp cumin (HALF a teaspoon, not the packet's tablespoon) • 3 cups beef broth (or water and the bouillon jar) · 1 bay leaf • 2 potatoes, in big pieces • SECRET 2: 2 tbsp masa harina whisked into ¼ cup COLD water • Warm flour tortillas THE METHOD 1. Cut the chuck into walnut-sized pieces, salt it, let it sit. 2. SECRET 1: toast the guajillos on a dry comal, 15 seconds a side, fragrant and blistered, NOT dark (dark is bitter, and bitter is permanent). Hot water over them, 20 minutes. 3. Brown the beef in 3 batches in hot manteca, pieces not touching, real color on two sides. Crowded meat steams. Out onto a plate. 4. Onion into the fat, scraping the brown off the bottom, 5 minutes. Garlic 1 minute. 5. Blend tomatoes, chiles, 2 garlic, the onion slice, oregano, cumin a full minute. Taste the soaking water: mild, use a cup; bitter, use broth. STRAIN it. 6. Beef back in, sauce over, stir 3 to 4 minutes until red turns brick and smells toasted. This fry is the dish. 7. Broth and the bay leaf (count it). Lowest fire, lid crooked, 2 hours. 8. At 1½ hours, potatoes in, 25 to 30 minutes. 9. Fork test: the biggest piece falls apart. If it argues, 20 more minutes. 10. SECRET 2: the masa in COLD water, stirred in, 10 minutes, until the sauce coats the spoon. (My own book offers flour on page 288. Tonight I corrected it on camera.) 11. Bay leaf out, salt, fire off, lid on, rest 10 minutes. Deep bowls, a torn flour tortilla. THE HONEST WORDS: bitter = the chiles went too long. Tough = more time, not more heat. Gritty = you skipped the strainer. Lumps = the masa met HOT water. Tastes like the packet = too much cumin. WHO PROFITS: the "stew meat" tray costs more per pound than the chuck it was cut from. The packet is $1.50 of salt, cumin, flour and dye. Three guajillos are 30¢, two spoons of masa 2¢. The whole pot is about $19 for six bowls, and it is beef. THE HABIT: make double and freeze it flat. One Sunday, make the mother sauce from page 66 and keep the jar, and this stew, the enchiladas and the pozole are one spoon away. And the cazuela afterward, with the red line dried inside? That is my other channel: 🧼 Bertha's Clean Home →    / @berthacleanhome   It was never because you were careless. Nobody showed you the bag of chiles. Tell me: flour tortilla, rice, or a bolillo next to your bowl? I read every one. CHAPTERS 0:00 The gray bowl 0:29 It was never you, it was two ingredients 0:41 The promise: two secrets 1:16 Texas vs Guadalajara, the honest word 2:02 The meat: never stew meat, buy the chuck 3:15 SECRET 1: three guajillos on the comal 4:27 Brown in batches 5:27 The bottom of the pot, onion and garlic 6:09 The sauce: tomato, chiles, blend, strain 7:32 Fry the sauce until it is brick 8:15 Why the guajillo changes everything 8:59 Broth, bay leaf, two hours 9:29 My mother's Tuesday 10:21 Potatoes go in late 11:04 The fork test 11:52 SECRET 2: masa harina, cold water 12:58 Rest, bowls, flour tortilla 13:49 The honest words 14:31 Who profits: the packet and the stew-meat tray 15:35 The habit: freeze flat, make the mother sauce 16:15 What I would ask of you #mexicancooking #carneguisadarecipe #chilecolorado