Trinchado

I love a good Trinchado. We used to go to the Portuguese Festival (Lusito Land) every year and the first thing I would do when we arrived, was sniff out a big fat bowl of steaming Trinchado and a crunchy roll to dip in that delicious sauce. It is no surprise then that Trinchado was one of the first things I taught myself to cook. I remember going onto the internet and looking over about 4 or 5 Trinchado recipes and looking at what ingredients all the recipes had in common and then I just made it up as i went along.

I've made Trinchado so many times since then and every time the recipe changes because I keep tasting the sauce and adding ingredients depending on my mood. I'm pretty sure I've completely deviated from what a traditional Trinchado should be but frankly my Trinchado is the shizz (amazingly delicious) and traditional or not it has become the best Trinchado on the planet in my opinion (modesty and all that).

I try to marinade my meat overnight in some balsamic vinegar and Worcestershire sauce but its not always possible to do this, so sometimes 20 minutes to a half an hour will have to do. Leaving it overnight though makes all the difference and you will be rewarded with deliciously tender steak cubes.

I fry the steak in batches instead of all at once. I find that when you just lump it all in the pan the meat actually ends up boiling instead of frying. I then add onions, garlic and spices to the fats and juices left over in the pan along with flour to thicken the sauce, red wine, beef stock, bay leaves & tomato paste. After simmering this for 30 minutes or so I add some sneaky sauces and leave it to stand.

This is delicious served over anything starchy that is likely to soak up this delicious sauce, so this would include soft white rice, fluffy mashed potato, crunchy white rolls or bread or even good old chips (or both)

Serves 4

Ingredients

500g Steak Cubes / Goulash.
2 tbsp. Balsamic Vinegar.
2 tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce.
2 tbsp. Butter.
1 tbsp. Olive Oil.
1 Onion, Finely Chopped.
1 tbsp. Dried Chillies (half tbsp. if you prefer it mild).
1 tbsp. Garlic Paste / Chopped Garlic.
1tsp. Paprika.
80ml Flour.
1 Cup Red Wine.
2 Cups Beef Stock.
2 tbsp. Tomato Paste.
4 Bay Leaves.
2 tsp. Salt.
1 tbsp. Sweet Chilli Sauce.
1 tbsp. Peri-Peri Sauce.

Method

1) Pour the Worcestershire sauce and balsamic vinegar over the steak, cover and leave in the fridge overnight.
2) Heat half the butter and half the olive oil in a pot and wait until it starts to sizzle.
3) Fry half the steak cubes only until they have browned on the outside, to seal in the juices, and set aside.
4) Heat the remaining butter and olive oil, fry the second batch of steak in the same way and set aside.
5) Put the leftover marinade juices to one side.
6) In the same pot, add the onion, garlic, paprika and chillies and fry until the onion is soft.
7) Add the flour and stir until the onion is coated.

8) Add the Red wine, beef stock, tomato paste, bay leaves and salt.

9) Stir well and bring to the boil. Put the steak and juices back into the pot.

10) Turn down to a simmer, put on the lid and leave for 30 minutes, stirring halfway.

11) Stir well, add the sweet chilli and peri-peri sauce.

12) Put on the lid and leave to stand on the cooling stove for 30 minutes.