Carne en Salsa Verde or Mexican Beef Stew in Green Salsa
- January 2023
- By Vivi Abeja
- Recipe from Mexico
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Carne en salsa verde is just what Vivi Abeja craves on super-frio Chicago days. She stirs up a pot of this cozy beef, potato, calabaza and green salsa stew. It has so many benefits, she tells Familia Kitchen. She and her boyfriend love it. It’s nutritious. It’s comforting, reminding her of growing up in the Chicago Mexican-heritage neighborhood of Little Village, with her mom and so many sisters, brothers, tios, tios, primos, and, of course: her abuela, who is her great kitchen inspiration.
Food is home for Vivi, she says. ”Cooking fills my soul.” She especially loves making dishes steeped in her family Mexican comida traditions, like her grandmother’s family recipes for Michoacan-style corundas and uchepos, which Vivi sold on the sidewalk in front of her grandmother’s house in Little Village. From there, she won a scholarship to Food He.ro, a local community-focused cooking school and now cooks at Bavette’s Steakhouse and Bar in the Chicago Loop. But she holds firm to her commitment to feed people she loves in the streets she grew up. That’s why she regularly hosts Vivis_Table Mexican-comida Instagram Live cook-a-longs and still sells food to her Little Village neighbors on weekends and days off.
This traditional stew is the ”type of food I make when I want to eat something that feels good and fulfilling and comforting. Carne con salsa verde is, for me, super nostalgic. It’s super comforting,” says Vivi. ”I’m really trying to get back to my roots and cook things that remind me of home.”
Another huge selling point for this dish? ”We think these recipes are so hard,” says Vivi. ”But they’re super simple.” She ticks off the accessible main ingredients: beef, chiles, potatoes, zucchini. All cooked in one pan. That’s it, she says. ”Simple, simple, simple.”
Did she grow up eating this stew? ”This is my most favorite meal that my mom would make when I was growing up,” says Vivi. ”My mom did not cook a lot, because you know: not everybody enjoys cooking. And she was always super busy. She worked so hard and was very tired. You know, mom life. So whenever she would make this, I just thought it was the best meal in the whole world.”
How to Eat Carne en Salsa Verde Stew
One of her favorite things about this carne en salsa verde is that it’s so tortilla-sop-up-able, says Vivi. “When my mom would make this, she would make it with frijoles on the side. And she would dip a fresh tortilla inside the pan, while there was still the cooking liquid in there. So the tortilla would soak up that liquid. Then she would pull out the tortilla and put it in a plate or a bowl and give it us, while she was still cooking the rest of it. We would just snack on it. Oh, that was my favorite!”
Vivi also remembers this dish coming together quickly, which was another bonus for her mom. ”My mother would pick up some carne, cook it in the same pan with the salsa, and it would just sit in the pan and soak in all those flavors. Oh, I just loved it.”
Now that she’s the one making it, Vivi likes to add Mexican calabaza or zucchini to the meat and potatoes. “I was wanting something a little lighter, a little healthier. And I love calabacitas. So I threw a few of those in there too. I cut them thick instead of the really thin slices that I would usually cut them because I knew that they were going to sit in the sauce. They just sit in the pan and soak in all those beautiful flavors. I just love it.”
Don’t forget the corn tortillas, adds Vivi. Either freshly made or store-bought is fine. Dipping yours into the bowl just might make this beef and green salsa stew one of your forever-favorite, soul-filling meals too.
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