Two things that I love about Filipino dishes is that they taste hearty and delicious right when they’re freshly cooked…
…and they taste even better the next day when all the flavors had a chance to marry each other.
This is why I love leftover Menudo, Morcon, Caldereta and Adobo. The sauce and the meat become very tasty the next day.
Beef Mechado is also one of those dishes.
What we used to do when cooking Beef Mechado is to get a large chunk of beef and make an insertion in the middle to make way to a large strip of pork fat that will serve as a wick or “micha”. But since braising a large chunk of beef takes so much time, we have adapted into cooking beef mechado with little chunks of meat. I think cooking with a smaller size of meat is better because then it gets to absorbs more flavor.
Today, I think I’ll be watching more crime/drama series, installing games into newly reformatted PCs and I’ll be playing with my daughter. These are the things that give flavor to my life.
Beef Mechado/Filipino Beef Stew
Ingredients
- 500g beef sirloin, cut into chunks
- 6 tbsp oil
- 3 clove garlic, minced
- 2 white onions,chopped
- 3 tbsp calamansi juice
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 cup tomato sauce
- 2 large potatoes, cubed
- 1 carrot, cut into fat strips
- 4 pcs bay leaf
Instructions
- Marinate beef cubes in soy sauce-calamansi mixture for 1-2 hours.
- Fry potatoes in heated oil until the edges are a little brown and set aside
- In a wok, heat around 2 tbsp cooking oil and sauté garlic and onions until onion become translucent.
- Add beef and sear until a little brown
- Pour in the beef marinade and the tomato sauce.
- Add bayleaf
- Simmer until beef is tender and the sauce is reduced into a thick gravy.
- You may add a little bit of water if sauce becomes too thick but beef is not yet tender.
- Add potatoes and carrots
- Simmer for a few minutes, season with salt and pepper to taste
- Serve with rice or pandesal
26 Responses
Boy, aren’t we Filipinos lucky to have such dishes? The kind that tastes better the next day… unlike many dishes that do the opposite. 😀
Beef Mechado is one of my kid’s favorites 🙂 anything with tomato sauce is a always a hit!
I can just imagine this over hot steamy rice! Thanks for the recipe, Peachy.
nice picture. katakam takam naman yang beef mechado mo! penge nga.
I just ate lunch and this looks amazing, so full of flavor! A must try!
That looks wonderful.
That definitely looks delicious, it’s making me hungry just looking! Thank you for sharing the recipe 🙂
I’m also taking part in the Hearth & Soul hop and that’s how I found your blog.
I think beef stews are so much better on day two – and I bet this really is delicious. I have never seen calamansi juice (or the fruit) anywhere – is it like regular or key limes? Thanks so much for sharing this with us at the Hearth and Soul Hop!
Sounds good.. Can i add organic foods instead of onions? because I hate to eat onions.
looks so good have fun playing with your little one
It looks hearty and so delicious.
This is the 3rd time I am seeing beef stew this week and every beef stew has been different. I seem to like all of them, including this 🙂
Your beef stew looks very flavourful! It’s great to pair with steamed warm rice. So delicious and comforting!
Looks so comforting!
I always love beef stew…nice and warm!
My mom cooks something similar, with a similar name, sounds like a delicious memoir from my past. Lovely
This looks really yummy! I love the colours!
Looks rich! Yum!
looks so rich! yum!
I agree, Filipino food specially stews are better the next day. That mechado recipe looks delicious!
This is one of the best beef mechado recipes that I have used. My beef mechado came out so delicious. Other than the color because it did not come out like paprika red with a little bit of oil like yours, I am very happy with the outcome. Thank you for sharing your recipe. I look forward to following more of your recipes.
Thank you so much Elizabeth for leaving a comment. I am so glad you love my recipe.
This was delicious. A huge hit for my family.
★★★★★
I am so glad you loved it. Thanks for letting me know!
Wow! I cooked this for my family and received rave reviews. I followed recipe exactly except used butter instead of oil (my Mom was out of oil) and added some red bell pepper. This was the absolute perfect mechanism recipe and got rave reviews from my Tagalog and Ilocanos family. Better than restaurant quality!!! Thank you so much for posting!!!
★★★★★
PS –
I hate spellcheck – don’t even know how the word “mechanism” got added to my review above… anyway, this recipe is a big hit!
★★★★★