Colombian Carne Frita

We just had the most amazing meal I have had in a long time where my beau and I made the meal.  It almost didn´t happen as we were in a quandry what to eat as it was well past lunch time and getting close to dinner. I need to eat regularly to keep my blood sugars more constant.  Anyway, it was neither here nor there  We settled on making Carne Frita at first.  He suggested doing some potato thing, which he LOVES potatoes.  I went to my stash of onions and potatoes and found a 5 lb bag of mini Russet potatoes that I bought for $1.  As I peeled about 2.5 lbs, we still didn´t know what we would make with them.  It´s really a pain to peel a bunch of small potatoes as it is to peel a couple big potatoes.

After he was finished preparing the meat, he said he would like papas fritas (fries).  I asked him how to cut them and he said he would do it, so I let him.  My beau LOVES papas fritas.  Half way through cutting all the mini potatoes, he asked me to make rice.  I had 3 types of rice:  sushi rice, short grain brown rice, and basmati.  We settled on sushi rice in the rice cooker.  I even used less water and the rice turned out too soggy.  My rice cooker is messing up and I think I might have to get rid of my rice cooker and buy one that works.

While the rice was cooking, and I opened the frig, I saw the roma tomatoes and avocados and thought it would be a great compliment to the meal to break up the heaviness of the starches and the protein.  It would give it a refreshing taste.  We call it Ensalada de Aguacate.

The smell of carne frita wafting through the house was soooo good.

Colombian Carne Frita

Colombian Carne Frita, Garlic Papas Fritas, Arroz Blanco, Ensalada de Aguacate (L to R)

Servings:  4

Ingredients:

• 1.5 lbs thinly sliced lean beef steak (any non-fatty cut)
• 1 lemon, the juice
• 10 cloves fresh garlic, smashed and minced
• 1 tspn sea salt
• 2 Tbspns oil

Directions:

• If there is any fat, trim all the fat from the beef.

• Marinate the beef with the juice of 1 lemon, salt, garlic for 30 min.  You can marinate the beef for longer if you want, but we didn´t.

Smashed garlic

• Heat skillet to medium heat.
• Place meat in hot skillet, with any juices.  We split the meat into 2 skillets.  Make sure to not overcrowd the meat.

• Cook the meat for 2-3 min., flip over.  Repeat this repeatedly until meat is browned on both sides.

• To brown the meat more, add 1 Tbspn oil to the meat.  This will sear the meat more, browning it more.  Ensure both sides are browned.

• Remove to serving plate and scrape out any garlic bits.

• If your skillet is caked with brown stuff, while the pan is still hot, add some white distilled vinegar and let it sit for away.  This will make it easy to cleaned the burned stuff from the skillet without needing to scrape it.