Sometimes I intentionally make a meal that is completely from one region of the world. Other times I just want to do something simple, whether its a meat main or a side dish, to represent one of my companies but I don’t feel like making the “authentic” side. And sometimes when I do this, this hodgepodge of food I pull together ends up being surprisingly cohesive. This was one of those meals.

My intention was to make this Panamanian appetizer, Carne en Palito, and serve it with something new from my Hungry Harvest box…and in this case that was artichokes. I’ve never cooked artichokes and they were a bit of a bear, but that’s a story for another time. They went surprisingly well with the beef skewers and the wild rice, but this blog is all about the countries, so here’s more on this dish from Panama.

Carne en Palito is a celebrated street snack…because who doesn’t love marinated meat on a stick? The thinly sliced skirt steak is marinated in a mixture of annato seeds (or in my case, I used an achiote paste someone gifted me from a trip to Central America), orange juice, smoked paprika, garlic and oil. I let the meat sit in this mixture for about 4 hours, but you could definitely do more, and then grilled these to perfection on skewers.

Recipe I used: https://honestcooking.com/carne-en-palito-recipe/

Overall Level of Effort: 1

Skill Level: Beginner

Would make it again? Yes

Additional Notes: Given that I used achiote paste, the initial step of cooking the seeds in the oil to infuse the flavor was a bit modified. Instead, I mixed the oil and paste in the skillet and cooked it a bit to blend before adding to the other ingredients