09/05/2020
Carne Criolla Tostadas - An indigenous Mexican twist on steak tartar
Even though my abuela Teresita was my mentor and guided me throughout my early years in the kitchen with her discipline, passion for market fresh produce and an authentic calling for service; the inspiration for our May special at Colin & Moro comes from the Mother I admire the most, my lovely wife Alba.
After a few months of dating, she decided it was time for me to meet her family and she didn’t mean just her parents and big brothers, she meant ALL her family. That weekend we road tripped to Santa Clara del Cobre, a small traditional Mexican town in the state of Michoacan, where the whole town works off Copper crafts that are sold worldwide. The community is very small and among the less than ten families and my sweet-heart at the time now my wife belongs to two of them as both her Mom and Dad are native from that region.
When we arrived to the family gathering I was at the same time excited and overwhelmed of the numerous relatives particularly all the female cousins, aunts, grandmas, and great grandmas that where greeting me, hugging me, pinching my blushy cheeks and telling me; so you are the Chef she has been telling us all about....we hope you are hungry because we have all cooked for you. Once they got me into the Grandma Alicia’s kitchen, I never left because there I found flavors that I have never imagined, all cooked in a wood fired stove and handmade copper pots and pans.
But there was something that caught my eye (taste buds) as soon as I got there and had nothing to do the amazing moles, or the agave pitted lamb barbacoa, or the corunda tamales or the singular way of doing layered Mexican rice, it was a ceviche tostada… not the traditional white fish an lime ceviche, this was a local grass fed beef ceviche: Carne Criolla.
This generation to generation local twist on steak tartare was so unique yet so simple and familiar. I felt the urge of learning the recipe so my now mother-in-law and Alba my wifey asked me to stay over the night so next morning they would show me the step by step. At sunrise we went to the local Mercado and we bought some wild tomatoes that are sweet, juicy but the peel is not too thick, white young onions, limes (lots of limes), criollo cilantro and manzano pepper (that is actually very similar to Peruvian aji rocoto). Then we went to the local butcher where they asked for fresh from the day ground beef round and sirloin, half and half as they said round gives texture and sirloin brings the flavor.
We finally got into the rustic kitchen where we found our last ingredient, homemade pickled jalapenos. It was time to cook and we started by finely chopping the onion, the sweet yet intense flavored manzano pepper and the tender part of the cilantro stem. We mixed that with the beef and we started to cure it with lime juice and the pickling from the jalapenos. On the mean time mayocoba beans where cooking with avocado leaf and fresh made corn tortillas were being deep fried to turn in crispy tostada. After two hours of maceration we added the chopped wild tomatoes, chopped cilantro and sea salt, they said salt should always be added at the very end otherwise the beef looses the moist.
Over a huge clay platter we started to build up the tostadas, spread refried mayocoba beans, then the Carne Criolla, some sliced manzano peppers and sliced avocado, we garnished them whit blossomed criollo cilantro. The family came together again and we shared a moment I will never forget.
Through the years this beef ceviche has become our signature family-day dish, our kids love it, our friends love it, we love it, because doesn’t matter where we are currently living as we are hospitality-nomads, it always takes us back home and we feel and taste the warm of our family back in Santa Clara del Cobre. Find the recipe in our stories to prepare this delicious dish on a very special day.
