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Posta Negra (Colombian Black Beef)
Posta Negra (Colombian Black Beef)
Posta negra is a traditional Colombian dish of onion and garlic marinated beef roast braised in a cola/worcestershire sauce, giving it a dark color. This dish is always served with rice, fried plantains, and avocado.When choosing a beef roast for this recipe, you are going to want a leaner roast that is good for slicing. This goes against all of the rules of braising, where you typically would want a fattier cut such as chuck. Because the roast is marinated in the onions and garlic, the acidity of the onions acts as a tenderizer. So I recommend using either a sirloin tip roast, eye of round roast, or bottom round roast. While these roasts are served medium rare, this recipe has the cooked all the way through. It still turns out quite tender, plus the rich cola sauce will keep the meat moist.
Equipment
- Blender or food processor
Ingredients
- 3 lbs sirloin tip, eye of round, or bottom round roast
- 1 medium onion
- 1 head garlic
- 2 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- water enough to cover the beef
- 1 cup cola
- 1/2 cup panela grated
- 3 tbsp worcestershire sauce
- 2 tbsp butter
Instructions
- Add the onion, garlic, and salt to a food processor or blender.
- Purée.
- Marinate the beef roast with the onion garlic purée in a gallon sized ziplock bag for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
- Heat up cooking oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Sear the beef on all sides of the roast.
- Add the marinade and enough water to cover the roast. Scrape any bits on the bottom of the Dutch oven with a wooden spoon. Bring to a boil. Cover. Reduce the heat to medium. Simmer for 2 hours.
- Uncover the roast. Add in the cola, panela sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Simmer for 30 more minutes, uncovered.
- Remove the beef. Turn the heat up to high. Add in the butter. Simmer for another 10 minutes, allowing he sauce to reduce and thicken.
- Slice the beef.
- Ladle the sauce over the beef. Serve with rice, tostones, and avocado.
Peanut Soup
Peanut Soup
In Africa, peanuts are referred to as groundnuts. This peanut soup with chicken has minimal ingredients and prep time. I recommend using dark meat chicken instead of white meat, with the skin removed. You can use the peanut butter of your liking. I prefer to grind my own peanuts to cut back on sugar and salt. Serve this soup with steamed rice.
Ingredients
- 3 lbs chicken thighs and drumsticks skinned, cut into chunks
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 2 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 medium onion
- 6 garlic cloves
- 3 tbsp parsley
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 2 cups water
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Season the chicken with paprika, salt, and pepper.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Brown the chicken on all sides for 8-10 minutes.
- While the chicken is browning, add the tomatoes, onion, garlic and parsley to a blender.
- Purée.
- Add the tomato purée to the chicken. Simmer covered on medium heat for 30 minutes.
- Add in the peanut butter, cayenne, and water. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Kikiam
Kikiam
Kikiam are a popular street food in the Philippines. They consist of ground meat with a variety of vegetables rolled in bean curd sheets. They are then steamed, then deep fried. The kikiam are then sliced in 1” pieces. They can be eaten as an appetizer dipped in banana ketchup or served as a main course with garlic fried rice.You can use ground pork, chicken, beef, or mince fish for the meat filling. In addition to the water chestnuts, carrots, and green onions; shiitake mushrooms, onions, and garlic can be used in the filling. The bean curd sheets give the pork roll a crispy outside, very similar in texture to fried tofu.
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1/2 lb shrimp peeled and deveined, roughly chopped
- 1 large carrot grated
- 1 cup water chestnuts finely chopped
- 4 green onions chopped
- 1 tbsp five spice powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tbsp water
- 4 bean curd sheets 10” squares
- vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
- Mix together the cornstarch and water.
- Add the slurry to the ground pork, shrimp, carrots, water chestnuts, green onion, five spice, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly.
- Boil the bean curd sheets for a couple of minutes to loosen them up. Drain, then squeeze out any excess water.
- Take 1 cup of the pork mixture and form it into a log shape. Place in the center of a bean curd sheet.
- Fold the bottom of the bean curd sheet over the pork mixture. Pull it tight.
- Roll it up tight.
- Repeat these steps until all of the pork is used up.
- Anything that won’t be immediately cooked can be stored in a freezer bag.
- Place the pork rolls in a steamer.
- Steam for 15 minutes. Let completely cool before frying.
- Fill up a pot of oil 2” high. Heat to 350 degrees. Fry for 6-8 minutes, until the kikiam are crispy on all sides.
- Drain on paper towel. Let rest for 5 minutes.
