Gluten-free Chicano food: Summertime is Guisadotime

Carne Molida and Papas in Chile Cheese Sauce: A Classic Guisado

Michael Sedano, The Gluten-free Chicano

**see Carb count at the bottom of the page**

 

The Gluten-free Chicano loves a hearty guisado any day of the year, weather cold or weather hot or somewhere in-between. There's always room for guisado, the spicy, stew that's a hallmark of genuine Mexican-Chicano home cooking. 

 

Guisado refers to the cooking method, something cooked in savory liquid, usually over extended time over low heat. In raza kitchens, guisado often means a slow-cooked meat and vegetable stew. Guisados are universal in our comida because they are fast and easily prepared, delicious, and accommodating to a frantic end-of-the-day schedule.

 

Clean-up's a breeze. in addition to trastes from the meal, you'll clean a knife, a cutting board, one pot or deep frying pan, an optional lid.

 

Today, el Gluten-free Chicas Patas shares a classic guisado named "those potatoes in red cheese sauce with ground beef." Millions of Chicanas Chicanos in greater Aztlán know the dish and every household no matter poor or middle class, ate a version of this on a regular basis. This is as genuine as genuine gets when you say, "Let's eat Mexican food tonight!"

 

Ingredients in four to six servings:

Brown or white onion

3 or more cloves garlic

1 small bell pepper

4 peeled potatoes 

1 carrot

1/2 stalk celery

gebhardt's chile powder

1 can 15 oz tomato sauce

good cheddar cheese

olive oil

3/4 lb good ground beef (80/90%)

 

Easy Preparation:

Mince the onion and garlic

Chop the potatoes and bell pepper into spoon-size chunks

Slice the carrot into rounds or chop

Mince the celery leaves and stalk

(One of the Gluten-free Chicano's gente is no fan of bell pepper so the pepper's cut large for easy removal. The flavor's in the food.)

 

Fast Cooking:

In a deep pot or frying pan, be generous with the olive oil (especially if using 93% beef) and wilt the onion and garlic over medium heat.

Sprinkle with ample Gebhardt's or another good ground red chile powder.

 

Up the heat, add the papas, carrots, pepper, and celery. Keep stirring and get everything lightly browned. The aroma now will make you weak-kneed and grateful.

 

Add the meat and break it up into fork-size crumbles as the mélange gets cooking and mouth-watering.

 

Time for other duties:

Lower the heat to medium.

Pour in a can of tomato sauce.

Rinse the can twice with tap water and add to the pot or pan.

Dab six or eight 1" cubes of cheese across the surface.

 

Cover, lower heat and let it cook for fifteen or thirty minutes or longer. The lower the flame/heat, the longer you have. The slow-cook method breaks down the potato to produce a richly-flavored thick broth.

 

In a hurry:

Cover, raise the heat, and cook for 15 minutes or less , stirring occasionally, until a fork easily pierces a papa and all the cheese is dissolved into the red soup.

 

Serve with hot corn tortillas

Carbs approximately 176 in entire recipe, or 35g per serving (5).

4 potatoes, 31g per potato 

1 onion, 16g

1 carrot, 12g

4 garlics, 1g

1/2 stalk celery, 1g

tomato sauce, 16 oz, 18g

cheddar cheese, 1 cup, 4g

beef, 0g

 

Carb counter:

http://www.carbohydrate-counter.org/advsearch.php