MECHADO IN MUSHROOM SAUCE

Mechado is a beef dish from the Philippines. The addition of soy sauce and calamansi juice to the marinating liquid gives this recipe its distinct Filipino character.

The traditional dish uses a Spanish culinary practice of threading strips of pork back-fat through thick pieces of cheaper lean beef to render them more tender and less dry (called larding). Hence the name mechado from the Spanish mecha meaning wick. The larded pieces of beef are then marinated in traditional vinegar, soy sauce, calamansi juice, crushed garlic, black pepper and bay leaf Then browned quickly on all sides in hot oil or lard, and then slowly braised in its marinade with the addition of soup stock, onion slices, and tomato sauce until tender and the liquid is reduced to a thick flavorful gravy.

My preference when preparing this dish is braising the meat in stock in the oven and then add wine and mushroom sauce. My mother however cooks the dish in the traditional way with the addition of tomato paste and mushroom sauce.