Indio viejo

Ingredients

• Beef brisket1 kg
• Masa harina150 g
• Onions2
• Sweet pepper1
• Tomatoes4
• Garlic5 clove
• Mint30 g
• Orange juice — from sour orange150 ml
• Annatto1 tsp
• Vegetable oil60 ml
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Simmer the brisket with an onion and salt for an hour and a half, until fully tender.

   95 min

2. 2

   Lift out the meat, keep the broth and pull the beef into fine threads by hand.

   20 min

3. 3

   Fry the onion, garlic, pepper and tomatoes with the annatto to a thick base.

   18 min

4. 4

   Slake the masa in cold broth until smooth, without a single lump.

   8 min

5. 5

   Add the shredded meat to the vegetable base and warm it five minutes.

   7 min

6. 6

   Pour in the slaked masa in a thin stream, stirring constantly, and cook twenty minutes.

   24 min

7. 7

   Add the orange juice, stir in the chopped mint and serve it with rice.

   8 min

About the dish

The masa is slaked in cold broth separately and only then poured in. Tipped dry into hot liquid it seizes into lumps that never break up.

The meat is pulled into threads by hand rather than cut. Threads take up the sauce; cubes stay wet outside and dry within.

The mint is unexpected but obligatory. It cuts the richness of the masa, and without it the dish turns heavy by the third spoonful.

Worth knowing

• — Slake the masa in cold liquid only. In warm liquid the starch cooks instantly and the lumps stay for good.
• — Stir the whole time the stew thickens. Masa settles and catches faster than you notice.
• — Sour orange is replaced by orange and lime juice in equal parts. Sweet orange alone makes the stew cloying.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

560 kcal

Protein

42 g

Fat

24 g

Carbs

44 g

More from Nicaragua

• Nicaraguan gallo pinto — Rice fried with red beans. The Nicaraguan version: red beans, and no Salsa Lizano.
• Nacatamal — A large tamal of corn dough with pork, rice and potato, boiled in a banana leaf.
• Vigorón — Boiled cassava with pork crackling and cabbage salad, served on a banana leaf.