Lomo Saltado

Peruvian Beef Stir-Fry with Red Onions, Tomatoes, Scallions & Cilantro

Lomo saltado is probably on every mom-and-pop Peruvian restaurant menu. The classic beef stir-fry is easy to make from inexpensive ingredients. When I’m having a rough day, lomo saltado is still the comfort food dish that does it for me. The best taste like a big, warm and cozy salad. You get a little crunchiness, but also something satisfying in your belly. Problem is, there are a lot of bad versions out there. It’s hard not to be disappointed when a saltado has steamed, instead of seared, ingredients. That’s a stew, not a stir-fry.

The key is to fry everything at very high heat so you get a good sear on the ingredients, but you don’t cook out all of their freshness (see sidebar, page 142). A few years back, I watched a lomo saltado cookoff on television when I was visiting family in Lima. The fastest competitor clocked in his saltado at just under ninety seconds. You don’t need to go that fast—I’ll be generous and give you an extra thirty seconds. But you should never spend more than two minutes from the time your beef hits the pan to when the scallion and cilantro garnishes are ready to scatter on top of the finished dish. The meat should be medium-rare, the tomatoes juicy, and the onions barely softening on the edges but still crunchy in the center. Make sure your tomatoes—heirlooms or juicy beefsteak—are really ripe, or let plum tomatoes sit out on the counter for several days until they soften up a little. These days, you see a lot of lomo saltados made with less expensive cuts of meat, but I prefer filet mignon (lomo means “filet,” the cut traditionally used in Peru); it’s so tender and flavorful, but you can use any cut from the tenderloin.

Traditionally, the stir-fry is served on top of deep-fried or skillet-fried potatoes, but you could also serve this with leftover rice. I usually pile potatoes on top or on the side of the plate so they stay crispy, like they just came out of the fryer basket or pan. And so you can dip them into the saltado sauce—Peruvian ketchup.

• About 1 cup baby fingerlings or roughly chopped potatoes, 2 handfuls of homemade or good-quality frozen french fries, or about 1½ cups rice
• 8 to 10 ounces filet mignon or tenderloin, thinly sliced into 2-inch-long strips
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon pureed garlic (page 37)
• ½ medium red onion, halved from stem to root end
• 1 ripe medium heirloom, beefsteak, or other juicy tomato, or 2 plum tomatoes
• 2 scallions
• 3 or 4 sprigs fresh cilantro
• 1½ tablespoons Saltado Sauce (page 138)
• 1½ tablespoons soy sauce, preferably a good-quality Japanese brand, or more to taste
• 2 to 3 tablespoons canola or other vegetable oil

1 Prepare the potatoes or rice, or rewarm the leftovers. You can roast baby fingerlings, go all-out and confit them in olive oil (page 163), make homemade french fries, or even fry up good-quality store-bought fries. The same goes for rice: Use leftovers, or make your favorite style of white or brown rice to serve with the saltado.

2 Next, prep all of your other ingredients, so they’re ready; this dish cooks quickly. (Keep each in a separate pile.) Sprinkle the beef lightly with the salt and pepper and rub the pureed garlic all over the meat with your hands. Put the red onion half, cut side down, lengthwise on a work surface. Slice off both ends, then slice the onion into lengthwise strips about ½ inch thick, moving the knife at a slight angle as you work around the onion globe. Your knife should be almost parallel to the cutting board along the sides of the onion and upright at the top. Cut the tomatoes in half lengthwise and cut each half into several large, chunky wedges. Finely chop the scallions, including about halfway up the green stalk, or chop them roughly for more texture, if you’d like. Finely chop the cilantro leaves and top half of the stems. Have your saltado and soy sauces measured and ready.

3 Heat a wok or large sauté pan over high heat until hot—a good 2 minutes. Pour in the oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pan and heat the oil for 2 to 3 minutes, until very hot. The oil shouldn’t be smoking, but close to it. Swirl the oil around the pan, then toss in the beef and quickly sear both sides for a few seconds each until it begins to brown, about 30 seconds total. Add the onion and shake the pan or use tongs to flip them a few times, then add the tomatoes right away. Fry the saltado until the edges of the onions color in a few spots and the tomatoes barely begin to soften, about 30 seconds. The total cooking time shouldn’t be more than 90 seconds at this point.

4 Immediately drizzle the saltado and soy sauces along the edges of the wok or pan, not on top of the stir-fry ingredients. You should smell the sauces caramelizing. Scatter the scallions and cilantro on top of the stir-fry and toss everything together one more time. Taste and add another drizzle of soy sauce, if you’d like. The saltado should be really juicy, with big flavors that the potatoes or rice can sop up.

5 Spoon the lomo saltado straight out of the pan into serving bowls. Pile the potatoes on top or serve the rice alongside.

Stir-Frying

My chefs know how picky I am when it comes to saltados. I don’t curse all that much, but they will probably tell you that I can say the word Focus! at an impressive decibel. These are the saltado, stir-frying, rules of my kitchen:

1. Be prepared. All of your ingredients need to be prepped and accessible, including the beef and sauces. No chopping or measuring while you are stir-frying!

2. Turn up the heat. You need a very hot pan to quickly sear your ingredients and lock in flavor in less than two minutes. Don’t make more than two stir-fry servings at once, unless you have a giant wok and a huge heat source and are very experienced. An overpacked wok causes the ingredients to steam, not fry.

3. Timing is key. Start with “dry” ingredients like meats and firmer vegetables. Add soft vegetables like tomatoes toward the end, so they don’t “melt” into the sauce. (If you are new to stir-frying and to making a lomo saltado, you may want to sear the beef, then take it out of the pan, so you don’t overcook the meat.) When the saltado is almost ready, drizzle the saltado and soy sauces alongside the edges of the wok or pan, not on top of the ingredients, so the sauces caramelize as they hit the hot pan.

4. Trust your nose. Don’t just go by the recipe cooking times. You really need to “feel” a saltado, or the stir-fry won’t have any character. The stir-fry should smell very aromatic. If you’re not sure, use a spoon to quickly taste the stir-fry (be careful—the sauce will be very hot). Cook the ingredients a little less or longer if you think they need it.