Sometimes, nothing but home cooking will do. This weekend, the yen for some good, hearty food from my youth hit and we happened to have all the ingredients for one of my all time favorites: lomo saltado. This is a classic Peruvian dish, and because I'm half-Peruvian, it is something I grew up with. Not only that, but it's basically one of my favorite dishes ever. Like, I'd take it along with coke slurpees to a deserted island. Trust. It's that good.
It's really a kind of simple stir fry with only a few ingredients. Here are the major players:
That's
- Potatoes
- Tomatoes
- Onions
- Steak (almost any cut will do)
- Jalapeño
The portions can be tweaked depending on the number of people. Though it was just the two of us, we cooked extra for leftovers. Lomo saltado for breakfast is out of this world.
The only other ingredients are
- Rice
- Canola Oil
- Salt
- Red Wine Vinegar
- Garlic Powder
Simple stuff, right? It's also pretty simple to cook.
1. Cut potatoes into fries and keep them in a bowl of water. (Keeps them from getting brown!)
2. Cut onions.
3. Cut tomatoes.
4. Cut steak into ~inch cubes. (Sorry, forgot to pic this...must have been drooling too badly at this point.)
5. Slice jalapeño latitudinally.
(OK, I know the cutting method is usually indicated in the ingredient list, but it's a personal pet-peeve that the cutting prep is never included in the total time for the recipe. SOMEONE has to chop those veggies!! They sure don't come out of the ground like that! Phew. Rant over :) )
Start your rice however you usually cook it. We're rice fiends here at Folksy Home, so we go rice cooker all the way.
French fries are the next step and really, since this is a two burner meal, batches of fries are going the entire time until they're all cooked.
If you've never made french fries at home before, it's pretty easy, just oil and potatoes. Heat up enough oil to fill about two inches in the pot using medium-high heat (on a back burner for safety!) and pop in one fry. Once that fry starts sizzling, the oil is hot enough. Drain the potatoes and throw in enough to fill the oil (but don't put in so many fries that they're sticking out of the oil.)
There is a great recipe for fries over at The Pioneer Woman Cooks, but I don't get fancy enough to use a thermometer, so this 'go by feel' method works for moi.
Those will take about 7-10 minutes to cook, and just take them out when they start to look like fries. Sprinkle on some salt.
While the first batch is cooking, heat a skillet with a coating of oil to medium-high. Just like the fries, pop in a piece of onion, and once it starts sizzling, you're good. Throw in the onions. (Peruvian tip: If the fries finish before anything else, put them in a glass dish in a 250 degree oven to stay warm and keep them from being snacked on. Oh yes, I have gone through an entire batch of fries while the rest of the dish is cooking. Oops.)
Cook them 'till they're good and soft and then it's time for tomatoes.
After those are in, stir them around. After about 3 minutes, it's time for seasonings. Give the skillet a heavy dash of garlic powder (probs about 1 tsp.), about 1/4 to 1/3 cup red wine vinegar (sounds weird, but trust), and salt to taste. Cook that down for about 5 more minutes or until everything is soft.
Put the tomato/onion deliciousness in the glass dish with the fries and pop back into the oven.
Re-oil the skillet and throw in your lightly salted meat cubes. Sear them.
If you're like us, and prefer rare over well, the searing process literally takes 2-3 min. If you like your meat cooked through, time accordingly.
Add the meat to your glass dish and you're ready for business.
Put a nice portion of rice on your plate,
serve some fries, and a mix of the onion/tomato and meat. Sprinkle on salt to taste (can you tell I like salt?), and a little jalapeño if you're into that sort of thing.
Tell me now, did that just rock your world or what?
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