How to Make Mexican Beef Stew

This guide to making Mexican beef stew is a fusion of a recipe from Epicurious, published in 1999, and Diana Kennedy, a well-known authority on Mexican cooking. Epicurious provided the main ingredients of the stew, and the unique spice mixture comes from Kennedy, who discovered it in the Yucatan region of Mexico. Kennedy also recommended using flank or skirt steak, as it pulls apart easily.
The recipe has three parts to it: making the green chile sauce and the Yucatan spice mix, both of which flavor the sauce, and cooking the beef and vegetables. The sauce and spice mix can both be made well in advance. The green chile sauce can be frozen for months before use.

Things You'll Need

• For green chile:
• 1 1/2 lbs. green chiles
• 1 clove garlic
• Salt
• For Yucatan spice mix:
• Pestle and mortar or spice grinder
• 2 tbsp. mild peppercorns
• 6 whole cloves
• 12 whole allspice
• 1 1/4 inches of cinnamon stick
• 1/4 tsp. cumin seed
• 2 tbsp. crumbled Mexican oregano
• 1/6 cup (41 ml) water
• For stew:
• Large stew pot
• 5 yellow potatoes
• 3 medium-sized carrots
• 3 celery stalks
• 1 small white onion
• 1 pound (450 g) beef--flank or skirt steak

Instructions

1. Make the chile. Heat the oven to 450 degrees F and roast the peppers for 20 to 25 minutes, until the skin blisters. Put the piping hot chiles into a bowl, and cover them with a plate or piece of plastic for a few minutes. The skin will be steamed, making it easy to remove.

2. Peel the skin off the chiles, remove the seeds and chop them. Put the chiles in a pot with the clove of garlic, fill just enough water to cover and season with salt. Bring the pot to a boil, then turn the heat down to a simmer, leaving the pot to cook, covered, until the peppers begin to break down. This could take a couple of hours.

3. Make the Yucatan spice mix while waiting for the green chile sauce to break down. Grind all the spices as fine as possible with a pestle and mortar or spice grinder. Transfer the spices to a bowl and add just enough water to make a paste.

4. Prepare the stew now that the spice mix and chile sauce are ready, or in the last half-hour to an hour of cooking the chile sauce. Peel and dice the potatoes and carrot into pieces that are the same size, about 1/2 inch thick. Dice the celery into smaller pieces, and chop the onion.

5. Put the steak into the stew pot and cover with water. Season the water with salt and bring to a boil. Skim the fat off the top of the water as it forms. Turn the heat down to simmer and let the steak cook for 10 more minutes, continuing to skim any fat off the top.

6. Add the onion, celery, Yucatan seasoning and green chile sauce to the pot and cook until the meat becomes tender, about 1 hour. At this point, add the carrots and potatoes and cook until the potatoes are finished. Adjust seasoning and serve.

Tips & Warnings

• Mexican oregano is not the same herb as Italian oregano--in fact, there are many different strains of Mexican oregano within Mexico, but it is a spade-shape leaf that is fuzzy to the touch. It can be found dried in a Mexican grocery store, but if you can't locate it, don't substitute it with the Italian strain, as this will change the flavor of the dish entirely.

Resources

• Epicurious' Green Chile Stew
• Epicurious' Basic Green Chile