Carne en Polvo is a must for our famous Colombian bandeja paisa. This beef dish can be made with flank or skirt steak that’s cooked and processed until it has a powder consistency. It's also delicious served with scrambled egg, plain white rice or this rice and vegetable soup.
Colombian- Style Powdered Beef (Carne en Polvo)
Ingredients
- 1 pound flank steak or skirt steak
- 5 cups water
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 2 Scallions chopped
- ½ cup chopped onion
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- Salt and Pepper
Instructions
- Place the flank steak in a plastic bag and add the garlic, scallions, onion cumin, salt and pepper. Refrigerate for about to 2 hours.
- In a medium pot, place the flank steak and water and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook the beef for about 1 hour or until the beef is cooked.
- Remove the beef from the water and set aside to let it cool. You can save the water used to cook the beef to make soup or just as a beef stock for other dishes.
- Cut the beef into chunks and place in a food processor. Process until the beef is of a powdered consistency as indicated in the picture.
Notes
Nutrition
Carne en Polvo is also known as carne molida in Colombia. This dish is a staple in the Andean region of Colombia. It is a bit bland if you it eat alone, but it is great as part of the “Bandeja Paisa” or on top of this Colombian rice and vegetable soup. My grandmother some times would mix it with hogao and serve it over white rice which was delicious too.
Carne en Polvo (Powdered beef) was one of my favorite foods growing up because I didn’t like to chew meat. My mom found that serving beef this way was the best way to get me to eat it. She used a molino to grind the meat, but I don't have one here in the United States, so I use a food processor to make mine.
Other beef recipes that you may like:
Carne Desmechada (Shredded Beef)
Bistec a la Criolla (Steak with Creole Sauce)
Claudia
Purely theoretical, but I wonder whether an immersion blender would work in the absence of the classic mill grinder or a food processor?
My siblings and I are very much missing our Colombian mother and abuelita this Christmas, as always. Yearning for tastes and smells of warm, happy times with them. Thank you for your recipes, Erica!