Recipe from Tasty Island 

Mechado
Filipino Beef Stew

Ingredients:

2 - 3 lbs. Beef with bones preferred or boneless chuck roast (sliced in cubes)
8 Cloves garlic (chopped)
1 Medium onion (chopped)
1 Large red bell pepper (half chopped and half cube sliced)
1 Medium canned tomato sauce
1 Piece bay leaf
½ Cup Silver Swan Soy Sauce*
2 Cubes of beef bouillon
4 Medium potatoes (peeled and cut into quarters)

Optional: May also add celery and carrots (which I did, as shown in next photo).

Saute garlic, onion and chopped red bell peppers. Cook for about five minutes, or until softened, stirring constantly…

Add the beef and mix well. Add the bay leaf and cook until the beef turns to medium brown and all the juice comes out from the meat…

What’s different here is, instead of searing the outside of the beef, you just brown it and let the juices naturally flow out, which creates its own starting stock base.

Add the soy sauce and beef bouillon. Mix well and cook for about seven minutes.

*The recipe calls for Silver Swan Soy Sauce (imported from the Philippines), but the market I bought the ingredients from this day didn’t have any in stock. So I opted instead for this TROPICS brand, also imported from P.I.. It has a slightly more “caramelized” flavor than typical Japanese style Shoyu styles.

Then, add the tomato sauce. Pour water into the tomato sauce can up to the rim and pour into the pot. Mix and cover the pot. Boil and cook over low heat…

Taste for saltiness. Mix occasionally to prevent the meat from sticking into the bottom of the pot. Cook until the beef is tender enough to bite and the sauce is slightly thick.

Add the remaining red bell pepper and the soft potatoes (cooked from the microware). Mix it well again, cover the pot and turn off the heat…

Serve over hot white rice. Enjoy!