Parisa

This unique and fabulous recipe comes from the book Borderlands by Hank Shaw, published in 2025. The subtitle is “Recipes and stories from the Rio Grande to the Pacific.” What this describes are the foods along both sides of the border between the United States and Mexico, from Texas west.

I first discovered James Beard award-winning author and chef Hank Shaw because of his blog, called Hunter Angler Gardener Cook. As you can tell, he kind of does it all. But he’s also published many books – many with amusing names, such as Duck Duck Goose, Hook Line and Supper, Buck Buck Moose, Pheasant Quail Cottontail, and many more.

Many recipes were bookmarked in this specific book, but the one I couldn’t wait to make is Parisa, which is a real name for this dish. Mr. Shaw uses lean, fatless venison for his Parisa, but I used beef.

From the author: “Parisa is at its core a Texas steak ceviche. It has a Mexican cousin called carne apache, which hails from Michoacan, and that is finely chopped or ground meat mixed with a standard pico de gallo;I have never seen it in the north of Mexico. Parisa has its origins with the steak tartares of Europe, but with a decidedly Texas touch. It has several variations but is almost always served as an appetizer alongside saltines or Ritz crackers.”

Shaw states that there are two ways to serve Parisa, like a more classic tartare, or marinated. He prefers the non-marinated so that the lime juice doesn’t “cook” the meat and make it grey and unappealing.

I reduced the recipe by about two thirds but the original recipe is shown below, and is printable. The ratios may not be exact, but I feel that there is some leeway with these ingredients.

Parisa
printable recipe below

1 cup white or yellow onion (I used one shallot)
1/4 cup lime juice (I used the juice of 3 limes)
1 pound finely chopped lean red meat (I used about 10 ounces of filet mignon)
2 to 4 serrano or jalapeno chiles, deseeded and minced (I used 1 whole Serrano)
2 small cloves garlic, minced (I used one small clove)
1/4 pound finely shredded Monterey Jack or Cheddar (I forgot to measure!)
1 teaspoon salt
Black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
Saltines or Ritz crackers

Soak the minced onion (shallot) in the lime juice and set this is the fridge while you mince the meat and the other ingredients.

Mix the meat, chiles, garlic, cheese, salt and pepper and olive oil. If you are not serving the parisa right away, wait to add the lime-soaked onion until you are ready to serve. Keep everything cold.

To serve, you can either dump the juice and onions into the rest and mix, or drain off the lime juice and mix the onions in. I prefer the latter because it will keep the meat pretty and pink longer, but you’ll still have that bright acidity from the lime juice on the onions. (I drained the onion.)

Eat with Saltines or Ritz crackers.

And parisa truly is delicious spread on Saltines. If the meat is chopped finer it’s easier to spread.