Puerto Rican · meal

Bistec encebollado

Name: Bistec encebollado
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 2
Cuisine: Puerto Rican
Ingredients: 1 lb Thin-cut beef steak; 2 whole White onion; 4 cloves Garlic; 1 tbsp White vinegar; 1 tsp Dried oregano; 2 tbsp Avocado oil; Salt and pepper (to taste)

Steak with onion and vinegar, twenty minutes. It's the dish you make when there's no time but there is hunger.

Serves

2 people

Amount

2 servings

Time

20 min

Steps

Why this one and not another

Five steps, twenty minutes and a single pan: of the thirty Puerto Rican dishes only one is faster. It's in the catalog, not on the calendar; the plan swaps it into whatever day it lands on if you pick Puerto Rican cooking.

Where it comes from

Bistec encebollado is the everyday dish of the Spanish Caribbean: thin cheap meat, tenderized with crushed garlic and vinegar, and onion rings browned until they turn sweet. The ratio is what defines the dish —two onions to a pound of meat— and that's why the name talks about the onion and not the steak. On the island it goes over white rice, which is what drinks up the juices from the pan. Here nothing takes its place: you pick the juice up with the onion, which is already half the dish.

Raw chicken and raw vegetables, the same kitchen

Never the same board for raw meat and for what goes in the juicer. If you only have one, vegetables first and meat after. And don't wash the chicken: it splatters.

1Ingredients and how to prep them

Ingredient	Amount	How to prep it
Thin-cut beef steak	1 lb	Thin. Salt, pepper, oregano and crushed garlic. Half an hour ahead if you can.
White onion	2 whole	In thick rings. There are two: the onion is the dish, not the garnish.
Garlic	4 cloves	Crushed with salt in a mortar or with the knife.
White vinegar	1 tbsp	—
Dried oregano	1 tsp	—
Avocado oil	2 tbsp	It takes high heat without smoking (~500 °F). Extra virgin here burns and turns the dish bitter.
Salt and pepper	to taste	—

Thin-cut beef steak1 lb
Thin. Salt, pepper, oregano and crushed garlic. Half an hour ahead if you can.
White onion2 whole
In thick rings. There are two: the onion is the dish, not the garnish.
Garlic4 cloves
Crushed with salt in a mortar or with the knife.
White vinegar1 tbsp
—
Dried oregano1 tsp
—
Avocado oil2 tbsp
It takes high heat without smoking (~500 °F). Extra virgin here burns and turns the dish bitter.
Salt and pepperto taste
—

2Steps

In this order. The box on each step is the specific pitfall: what goes wrong there and why.

1
Season the meat and leave it
5 min
Crushed garlic, oregano, salt, pepper and the vinegar. Half an hour if you have it; five minutes if you don't.
Heads up
The vinegar softens, and it's what makes a cheap steak come out tender. But no more than an hour: past that, the meat goes mealy.
2
Pan good and hot
3 min
High heat until a drop of water dances. Then the avocado oil.
Heads up
In a lukewarm pan the steak gives up water and boils itself gray.
3
Sear the meat in two batches
4 min
A minute and a half a side, nothing overlapping. Take it out.
Heads up
Two batches. All of it at once drops the temperature hard and you end up with meat cooked in its own water.
4
The onions into the same pan
6 min
The rings over medium heat, with a little salt, until they soften and brown.
Heads up
Don't stir them every other minute. Leave them alone so they take on color: that's what makes them sweet.
5
Put the meat back with its juice
2 min
Everything together two minutes, and the juice it left on the plate goes in too.

3If something goes wrong

What happens	Why	What to do
The meat came out tough	Pan not hot enough, or too long on it.	High heat and a minute and a half a side. Thin steak doesn't need more.
The onion came out raw	Not enough time, or too much at once.	Six minutes minimum and don't move it so much.

The meat came out tough
Why: Pan not hot enough, or too long on it.
What to do: High heat and a minute and a half a side. Thin steak doesn't need more.
The onion came out raw
Why: Not enough time, or too much at once.
What to do: Six minutes minimum and don't move it so much.

This recipe is one of the meals in the plan

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Why this one and not another

Where it comes from

▲Raw chicken and raw vegetables, the same kitchen

1Ingredients and how to prep them

2Steps

Season the meat and leave it

Pan good and hot

Sear the meat in two batches

The onions into the same pan

Put the meat back with its juice

3If something goes wrong

This recipe is one of the meals in the plan

Raw chicken and raw vegetables, the same kitchen