Peruvian Lomo Saltado Recipe

Ingredients
For the rice

• vegetable oil
• 2 cups long grain rice
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 1/2 cups cold water
• 3 tsp salt

For the fries

• 900 g potatoes
• 500 ml vegetable oil
• sal

For the lomo saltado

• • vegetable oil to cook
  • 1 kg tenderloin/filet of beef clean, without membranes and large chunks of fat. Cut in
  • medium-sized cubes.
  • Salt and pepper

• • 80 ml white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar or sherry vinegar
  • 150 ml soy sauce
  • 5 tbsp oyster sauce optional
  • 80 ml Peruvian pisco optional
  • 2 tomatoes deseeded and cut in strips

• 1 red onion in slices
• green onions/scallions only the green part, cut in thick pieces

Instructions ;

For the rice

• Grate, mince or purée the garlic and cook with a bit of vegetable oil on medium-low heat.
• Add the rice and stir to heat it up for a couple minutes.
• Add the water and wait for it to start boiling.
• Cover with a lid and let cook for 15-20min on minimum heat or until it dries out. Fluff up with a fork once done and reserve.

For the double fried fries*

• • Peel and cut the potatoes in similar sizes for even cooking.
  • Let soak for at least 30min in water with 3 tbsp of salt so they release water.
  • Remove from the water and tap-dry with kitchen paper.
  • Heat up the oil to medium-low heat and cook half of the potatoes. You should only see a few bubbles coming up. Take them out once cooked (try with a knife or toothpick) and put them on kitchen paper to continue with the rest of the potatoes.

• Once the potatoes are out of the oil increase the heat to medium-high and wait for it to heat up. Fry the fries in to batches once again, this time you should see quite a lot of bubbles. Remove from the oil and place on kitchen paper so it absorbs the excess fat.
• Season with salt and leave them in a preheated oven at 100°C/200℉ while you make the lomo saltado. Remember they don’t stay crispy long if you just keep them lying around in the kitchen.

For the lomo saltado

• Heat your pan on really high heat, be patient and let it heat up nicely. Ideally, you want to use a wok. If you don’t have one, use any pan you like.
• Add approximately 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and place the pieces of meat on top. Only add enough to fill half the pan so that they can sear properly. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Don’t move the meat for a minute and then flip it. If you move them around too much they won’t become golden. It’s important that the pieces aren’t small so that they don’t overcook. At this point we’re only searing, they will continue to cook with the sauce.

Warning, if you’re flambéing or setting ingredients on fire in the kitchen, ALWAYS turn off your extractor.
Once the meat is seared, you have three options:

1. 1.  If you have a gas stove: Once the meat is golden, carefully tilt the pan to get the flame close to the oil in it. It should light on fire. If it doesn’t it could be that your pan isn’t hot enough or you don’t have enough oil in the pan. When the oil isn’t on fire anymore, add approximately 1.5 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp vinegar and an optional 1 tsp oyster sauce. If you want, you can also add a bit of Pisco and flambé it, it adds delicious flavour.
   2.  If you don’t have a gas stove and want to add the smoky flavour, a good idea is to flambé using Pisco. Add approximately 1.5 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp vinegar, an optional 1 tsp oyster sauce and 1 tbsp Pisco. To flambé it you can use a blow torch or set on fire the tip of a rolled-up piece of kitchen paper. Get the flame close to the pan and it will flambée immediately just from the vapour of the Pisco.
   3.  If you want to avoid all this fire, that’s ok. Add approximately 1.5 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp vinegar, an optional 1 tsp oyster sauce and an optional 1 tbsp Pisco. You will just let it reduce without setting it on fire.
   4. Give it a few extra seconds for the sauce to reduce and thicken slightly.
   5. Remove the meat from the pan along with the juices and continue with the rest of the meat. The weaker your stove is, the less meat you can cook per batch.
   6. Repeat the same procedure with the tomato, onion and ají amarillo. Do this quickly because we don’t want them to wilt too much.

1. Put everything back in the pan and heat it up for a minute. Don’t do it longer than that or the meat could overcook.
2. Finish by adding the green onion/scallion.
   Notes
   *Keep liquids away while you’re frying (aka don’t stand over the oil with a glass of water) because if it spills it can cause an accident. Also it’s best to keep kids out of the kitchen while deep frying.