Weekend Brunch: Lomo al Jugo

Lomo al jugo is the typical Saturday or Sunday brunch my mom used to make for us growing up. At my grandparents', this was a typical Sunday night small meal. My mom also made this for a dinner meal by pouring it on top of rice and beans. Having said that, don't let the weekend brunch title limit you with this dish. Its very easy to make and you can eat it in many ways.

Lomo in Spanish is the most tender part of the cow, and "al jugo" means juiced. The juiced part makes reference to the juice of the tomatoes.

I cooked this for brunch today. I made what seemed to be too much food for us (but we ate it all) so we weren't hungry until 4pm or so. I baked some frozen bread to go with it and my husband made some freshly squeezed orange juice. The amount of ingredients serve 2 hungry people :)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb of skirt steak (cut in cubes)
• 4 roma tomatoes (cut in 4 pieces each)
• 1 tea spoon of red wine vinegar
• 1 spoon of soy sauce
• 1 tea spoon of aji amarillo paste or half of a jalapeno pepper if you don't have aji amarillo (optional)
• Salt, pepper, and cumin
• 2 spoons of vegetable oil

How to make it: Put the oil on a frying pan or wok (if you have it) in high heat. Add salt, pepper, and cumin to the meat. Once the oil is hot, start frying the meat in the pan. The meat doesn't have to cook all the way just yet. All you want to do at this point is to sear it. (approx 2 minutes). Add the vinegar and the soy sauce. Stir and let the meat soke in all the flavors added. If you would like for this to have a little kick,  add the aji amarillo or the jalapeno (sliced). Otherwise, you can ignore the hot pepper. Add the tomatoes. Stir and mix the tomatoes with the rest of the ingredients and cover the pan with a lid. Lower the heat to medium and let the tomatoes release their delicious juice. This will take approx 5 minutes. Make sure you check it every now and then. If you let it cook for too long, the juice of the tomatoes will start to dry up and you will end with just lomo and no "jugo" ;)

Once most of the tomatoes have disappeared and released all their juice, taste it and add more salt and pepper if needed. In my family, when we eat this dish for breakfast, we dip the bread in the tomato juice. Oh, and you are better off eating this dish with a spoon.

Buen provecho!