My family has always relied in the same butcher since I can remember. My grandma used to buy meat from her, and then my mum. But then I went vegetarian for a while when I left home, and when I started eating meat again (for health problems) I wouldn’t eat certain kinds of meat, so I wasn’t a good one keeping tradition.

But, she’s closing down and as a kid I remember going with my mum or my grandma to buy to the food market. We always stopped at the same stalls. They had it clear which one suited them best, so I remember the faces of the ladies in the vegetable stall. The already closed chicken stall, that was in the same street and not only had fresh chicken, but those amazing roasted chicken that smelled from two blocks aways and tasted completely different to the ones we made at home. Oh, and the smell of the juices dripping… And almost in front of her (Ana, the chicken lady) was Conchita, the butcher.

 

 

 

For me going to her stall and waiting for the meat to be given to us was an amazing thing, like being part of a royal entourage. I looked at her and analysed every single movement. I didn’t know it back then but my inner chef was fascinated by her knife skills. Today I still have trouble when I ask for extremely thin beef steaks for my Pho…nobody gets it right. But this woman, she moved the knife as if she was using a sword, gracefully and effortlessly.

 

 

 

I remember being home and playing with my sister. Role-playing that we had a Butcher Shop was one of the many games we enjoyed. I remember playing with our putty/slimes (remember Gag?) and our non-cutting knives and pretending to be her. Our knife skills sucked though, but you can’t blame two girls with dessert knives in their hands. We even had a similar board where we wrote the parts of the meat and their prices. And that was probably my first chef-related adventure without even knowing it.

In order to say goodbye to her, I went one last time to buy some meat. I bought minced beef because tomorrow is Burrito Day, and I wanted to make Burrito Bowls. Such an amazing dish to say goodbye. I felt like my childhood went away one more time. That feeling of nostalgia is so beautiful. I’m glad there’s still things that remind that I was a kid once.

 

 

Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup of cooked rice (I cooked it and then added a bit of seasoning, but plain white rice works well)

1 handful of spinach.

200 g minced beef.

1 cup of salsa (if you want it to make it yourself: tomato, red pepper, onion, garlic and carrot)

2 tbsp of fajita seasoning (if you want to make it yourself: dried onion, dried garlic powder, black pepper, dried chillies, salt and sugar)

5 carrots chopped (I used leftovers from a slow juicer, they are drier and I think they provide a better texture to the mixture)

1 onion.

A little bit of water.

1/2 sweet potato

2 tbsp kefir

2 tbsp pinto beans (boiled)

Grated cheese.

Jalapeños (fresh or preserved)

 

Method:

Chop the onion and fry with a little bit of olive oil.

Add the minced carrot and then the meat.

Once is cooked, add the seasoning and a bit of water.

Then add the salsa.

To serve, place the rice on the bottom and display the minced beef, the beans, the spinach leaves and the sweet potatoes beautifully. Add some kefir on the veggies and then add the grated cheese on top of the beef.

Top with a couple of jalapeño slices.

You can add some warm tortillas, but the thing about the burrito bowl is avoiding the tortilla. But, as you wish, I’m not here to judge 😉

 

Well. Good bye, Conchita. We’ll miss you. Have fun and keep fooding!