Tinaktak

Name: Tinaktak
Cuisine: Chamorro
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon of canola oil; 1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped; 3 cloves of garlic, smashed, peeled and minced; 1½ pounds of flank steak or beef round, pounded with a meat mallet and finely chopped; 1½ pounds of flank steak or beef round, pounded with a meat mallet and finely chopped; 2 tablespoons of lemon juice; 1 teaspoon of salt; ¼ teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper; 4 small, Oriental eggplants, stemmed and sliced into sticks the size of French fries; ½ cup of green beans, sliced on the diagonal into 1½-inch-long pieces; 1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into ½-inch dice; 1 cup of thick coconut milk

Braised Beef in Lemon Juice with Vegetables and Coconut Milk

Preparation info

Serves
4 to 6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Tradewinds & Coconuts

By Jennifer Brennan

Published 1997

About

Tinaktak is a very popular and traditional dish, prepared on many other islands in Micronesia besides Guam. Typical of the tropical cooks’ treatment where they combine assortments of vegetables in light but vibrant blends of flavors, it bears the Oceanian signature of gravy enriched by coconut milk. Its Chamorro name is delightfully onomato poetic (I prefer the rhythmic allusion of the secondary spelling), since it imitates the beat of a cleaver chopping and pounding the beef.

Ingredients

Oceania
Guam
Main course
Gluten-free

Ingredients

Method