Salpicón
A Mexican salad of boiled beef served cold — which sounds unpromising until you taste it. The juice of three limes works here as both dressing and marinade: it soaks into the shredded fibres and gives the cold beef a fresh, vivid flavour. The second condition is equally simple: the meat must cool in its own broth, because lifted out hot it dries quickly and turns stringy.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Simmering 120 min
- Cooling in the broth 40 min
- Shredding 15 min
- Marinating 30 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneSimmer the beef two hours
Cover the meat with cold water, add the onion, garlic, bay, pepper and salt and cook 2 hours with the surface barely trembling. The beef should fall apart under a fork — brisket needs that long for its collagen to become gelatine. If the meat still resists after two hours, keep simmering and check every 20 minutes.
Ingredients: 1000 g beef brisket · 2500 ml water · 1 pcs onion · 5 cloves garlic · 2 pcs bay leaves · 1 tsp peppercorns · 2 tsp salt
The surface barely moves — two hours without boiling.Cool the meat in its broth
Take the pot off the heat and leave the meat in the broth for 40 minutes, until lukewarm. An important step: meat cooled in the broth stays juicy, while meat lifted out hot steams off its moisture and cools dry and stringy.
Ingredients: 1000 g beef brisket · 2500 ml water · 1 pcs onion · 5 cloves garlic · 2 pcs bay leaves · 1 tsp peppercorns · 2 tsp salt
Shred the meat into fine threads
Lift out the meat and pull it apart with two forks into fine threads, discarding tough membrane and excess fat. Torn fibres catch dressing across their whole surface; diced beef stays dry inside.
Ingredients: 1000 g beef brisket · 2500 ml water · 1 pcs onion · 5 cloves garlic · 2 pcs bay leaves · 1 tsp peppercorns · 2 tsp salt
Two forks, fine threads — never dice.Douse the meat in lime immediately
Squeeze the juice of two limes over the shredded meat while it is still lukewarm and toss. Lukewarm meat takes up the juice and seasoning far more readily than cold meat straight from the fridge.
Ingredients: 3 pcs limes · 60 ml olive oil · 1 tsp oregano · 1 tsp salt · 12 pcs corn tortillas
Dice the vegetables finely
Cut the seeded tomatoes, red onion and radishes into half-centimetre dice and chop the coriander and jalapeños. Discard the tomato seeds — they are what weep and dilute the dressing.
Ingredients: 4 pcs tomatoes · 1 pcs red onion · 1 bunch coriander · 3 pcs jalapeños · 6 pcs radishes · 2 pcs avocados
Toss with oil and oregano
Combine the meat with the vegetables, add the oil, the remaining lime juice, oregano and salt and toss with your hands. Mexican oregano has a more citrusy aroma than Mediterranean — if you only have the ordinary kind, it will do.
Ingredients: 3 pcs limes · 60 ml olive oil · 1 tsp oregano · 1 tsp salt · 12 pcs corn tortillas
By hand, so the dressing reaches every fibre.Rest half an hour and serve
Leave 30 minutes in the fridge for the flavours to merge and toss again before serving. Spread on a flat plate, arrange avocado slices around it and serve with warm tortillas — salpicón is scooped up with them.
Ingredients: 4 pcs tomatoes · 1 pcs red onion · 1 bunch coriander · 3 pcs jalapeños · 6 pcs radishes · 2 pcs avocados
Before you start
The broth is a second dish
Cooking the brisket leaves about two litres of strong beef broth. Strain and freeze it — a ready base for soup, rice or caldo tlalpeño.
The seafood version
On the Mexican coasts salpicón de mariscos, with prawns, squid and poached fish, is popular. Seafood needs only a few minutes, until the prawns turn pink and the fish begins to flake; then carry on as with the beef, lime included.
Two days in the fridge
Salpicón keeps two days in the fridge, and on the second day the flavour is even fuller. Always add the avocado fresh — overnight in the fridge it darkens and spoils the look of the whole dish.
