Food and Comfort

A neighbor of ours in Chile, who is an artist, lives ten kilometers up a stony road in a house he built by hand out of dreams and trees. He is caring by himself for a sick loved one, and the little community along our dirt road in the country has come together as a team—a spontaneous, supportive equipo—to lend a hand. The deer farmers on the lake bring flowers and fresh asparagus and offer transport. The wife of a rodeo rider up the road brings over firewood. The local shaman—who's also a trained anesthesiologist—stops by daily, and another neighbor has been sending over home-cooked meals for the vegetarian patient three times a day.

Today, the rain is greening the spring hillsides and shaking the apple blossoms, and I'm making up a pot of Chilean comfort food—carne mechada. It's pot roast in another language, and it's delicious—a blend of beef, onion, peppers, and cumin that tastes like home.

It's really like a combination of pot roast and chili with shredded beef. Here in Chile, they often make it with Punta de Ganso, one of many mysterious cuts of beef in this far-distant farm country. I've had to buy the equivalent of the Big Book of Chilean Meat  to make heads or tails—literally—of what's in the butcher shops. But near as I can tell, Punta de Ganso is a lot like bottom round with a cooler name. It makes great carne mechada.

Every grandma from Venezuela to Chile has her own recipe for it, and here's mine. I hope it brings some warmth and comfort to our neighbors and good friends when we share it with them in the coming days.

Carne Mechada

1 1/2 kilos Punta de Ganso, or 3 lbs. bottom round
1 large onion, sliced
1/4 bottle dry red wine
4 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic, smashed
2 carrots
Salt and pepper

For the sauce:
2 tbs. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
12-oz. can tomatoes
1 tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1 tbs. basil
2 tsp. cumin
Salt and pepper

1. Place meat in a large pot with onions, carrots, bay leaves and garlic. Add red wine and water to cover. Simmer for three hours until the meat pulls apart easily with a fork.

2. In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and saute the chopped onions and peppers until soft. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients and simmer together for 30 minutes.

3. Remove the meat from the pot and shred it with two forks. Add the shredded meat to the sauce and stir together. Add the basil, cumin and salt and pepper to taste.