Peruvian Dish: Almendrado de Carne
Updated: Nov 11, 2018
Cooking. It's scary, but fun at the same time. I get nervous when cooking Peruvian food because I want it to come out perfect - mostly because my boyfriend is Peruvian and he's very particular about his culture's food and how it's cooked.
Today, I made Almendrado de Carne (meat with an almond sauce) and it was amazing. My mouth is watering again just thinking about it and I already had seconds!
This dish is really easy to make, which is great if you are not much of a cooker, like me. First, you need to cut up all your veggies:
grape tomatoes, cut in half, one box
1 peeled carrot, cut into cubes
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic
Once all your veggies are peeled and cut, put them in your blender and set aside.
Now it is time to prepare the meat. You can cook with any meat that you prefer. I cooked this dish with beef.
We need to give the beef some flavor! You can use any spices that you prefer, but I simply used slat, pepper, garlic powder, cumin, and paprika.
Next, heat up a medium skillet with a little bit of olive oil, I just eye balled it. Finely dice up one garlic clove and throw it into the pan.
Before putting the meat in the pan, you are going to add one tablespoon of aji panca! This is crucial for the dish.
Add some cooking wine, and mix together. Then, add in the beef. Let the meat cook for five minutes on both sides.
Once the beef looks tender, take it out of the pan to rest while you continue making the sauce.
To finish up the sauce, you need to add one jar of marinara sauce.
Add in mixed frozen veggies and stir it all together.
At this point, you are going to blend the veggies in your magic bullet or blender - whatever you have on hand.
Once the mixture is smooth, add it to the sauce and let it simmer.
While the sauce is simmering, you can add the beef back to the pan.
Put the stew on low heat and let it sit for ten minutes.
This dish can be paired with rice or mashed potatoes, I chose to make mashed potatoes today, but you can make rice, if you'd prefer.
I followed the cooking instructions for boxed mashed potatoes, you can make the mashed potatoes fresh, though. To the instructions of the boxed mashed potatoes I also added two sticks of butter. (Yes, I know what you are thinking. That's A LOT of butter, but oh god, the pay off is SO worth it. Trust me).
After the mashed potatoes are done cooking, then the meal is complete! Well done and good job!! Pat yourselves on the back :). & Enjoy your food!!
Comment and let me know if you made this Peruvian dish.
xo Deirdre