On my previous trip to Guatemala, I had seen some interesting, new (to me) things in the supermarket. Among them were some bottled sauces and some dry-mix packages intended for cooking some traditional Guatemalan dishes. I've never had any of these dishes, but the bottled sauces piqued my curiosity, so (since I had already been chatting about food with my host and his wife) I asked if the ready-made sauces were any good. My host's wife said that she had never used them, but that she had tasted them when a friend of hers had used them and they were very good.
Thus, I went ahead and brought back one bottle each of the sauces to make Hilachas and Kak-Ik.
Hilachas is a Spanish word essentially meaning "loose threads" because the shredded flank steak in the sauce looks like a bunch of loose threads. I guess you could say that it's a Mayan, Pre-Hispanic version of the Cuban Ropa Vieja with which many of us are already familiar, but it has a different flavour profile from that of Ropa Vieja. The sauce for Hilachas has not only tomatoes, bell peppers, green onions, stock, tortillas (ground up for thickening) tomatillos, guajillo and ancho chiles, garlic, cumin, achiote and cinnamon.
Kak-Ik is a Mayan stew made with turkey (or, in some cases, chicken, but it's supposed to be turkey). The sauce contains tomatoes, tomatillos, onions, red bell peppers, garlic, cilantro, ground pumpkin seeds, basil, spearmint, ground sesame seeds and guajillo and ancho chiles.
Can't wait to try these!
Thus, I went ahead and brought back one bottle each of the sauces to make Hilachas and Kak-Ik.
Hilachas is a Spanish word essentially meaning "loose threads" because the shredded flank steak in the sauce looks like a bunch of loose threads. I guess you could say that it's a Mayan, Pre-Hispanic version of the Cuban Ropa Vieja with which many of us are already familiar, but it has a different flavour profile from that of Ropa Vieja. The sauce for Hilachas has not only tomatoes, bell peppers, green onions, stock, tortillas (ground up for thickening) tomatillos, guajillo and ancho chiles, garlic, cumin, achiote and cinnamon.
Kak-Ik is a Mayan stew made with turkey (or, in some cases, chicken, but it's supposed to be turkey). The sauce contains tomatoes, tomatillos, onions, red bell peppers, garlic, cilantro, ground pumpkin seeds, basil, spearmint, ground sesame seeds and guajillo and ancho chiles.
Can't wait to try these!
If blueberry muffins have blueberries in them, what do vegan muffins have?