CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — It’s never too early to talk about delicious homemade food.
We’ve got another delicious homemade delicacy to talk about today in our most recent edition of “favorite family recipes.”
We talk with Corpus Christi Mayor-elect Paulette Guajardo for a recipe that has been passed down from generation to generation among her family.
It’s her classic cultural dish of fideo.
We traveled to her home where she taught us to make one of her family favorites. It’s her mother’s recipe and she might make a cameo as we put this delicious dish together.
“We’re making fideo with stew meat, about a pound of stew meat and a box of Vermicelli fideo, which will make enough to feed about six people,” she said. “It's a great meal.”
Gujardo starts browning and seasoning the meat with olive oil for both dishes.
For some, fideo might seem like a version of chicken noodle soup, with some tomato added to the broth.
But the dry pasta, or “fideo,” is lightly browned in olive oil, giving it that very distinctive flavor. The Spaniards introduced the dish to many of their colonies beginning in the 1600’s, but it wasn't until the late 1800's when it was introduced to Mexico.
"This is a dish that you can put together within 30 minutes for the family,” she said. “It’s really fast and feeds up to six people with this recipe we're making."
The roots for prime fideo started early for Guajardo, she said.
“I have three other siblings, so there were four of us, of course my mom and dad,” she said. “Sitting down was extremely important. Sitting down at the table all together happened every single day and my mom made everything from scratch. So I grew up with that value and I think it's extremely important."
Guajardo said she started to learn her mother’s secrets while helping with her other siblings..
"I did, we would help,” she said. “We would always help in the kitchen but I probably learned to make it myself when I married (her husband) Victor almost 20 years ago. I had to have something."
But with her and her husband having busy schedules like so many parents do, making the time to sit down as a family is a must for them.
“It’s hard to say “OK, we got practice we have to pick him up, dinner, cook, eat out, bring it home, sit at the table? All those things are very valuable, so we have to make it a priority,” she said.
And those are values she hope every family can establish. As everything begins to blend, knowing just the right time to take it off the stove takes years of practice.
"It's simmering and it looks really good,” Guajardo said. “How does that look to you mom? It looks really good, just a little more."
And depending on how much you browned the meat will determine how long the dish is left to simmer. Add a side of beans cooked overnight by her mother and you have yourself a “favorite family dish.”
Guajardo enjoyed sharing her recipe with our viewers and readers.
“You are more than welcome, anytime,” she said. “I welcome you back. This was so much fun. Thank you."
And her recipe was delicious.
It was “mmmm, so good!”
Here’s her recipe.
PAULETTE GUAJARDO'S FIDEO
1 box fideo
1 lb of stew meat
1 - 2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 of a medium onion
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 can tomato sauce
1 can Rotel
Salt & pepper to taste
1 teaspoon consomate (Concentrated flavor of tomato & chicken)
2 - 32 oz containers beef broth
Cooking Instructions:
- Brown meat with salt and pepper – set aside
- Use 1-2 tablespoons olive oil to brown the fideo - stirring constantly
- Add fideo to the meat
- Add finely chopped onion, minced garlic, tomato sauce, rotel & consomate
- Add 1 32 oz container of broth and let it boil in low fire for 15 minutes or until cooked
- Add more broth as preferred~ should be more on the soupy side
This feature will be regular and we want to find out about some of your favorite family recipes. And you never know when we may be coming into your home to cook one of your family dishes.
Contact me through my Facebook page, my Instagram page andmy Twitter page.
Who knows? I may be coming to your home soon to cook up one of your favorite family recipes.
