“Recipe: Picadillo con Quimbombo

Picadillo con quimbombo over white rice

A great skillet dinner that does not require a pressure cooker!!!  Picadillo is quick and easy and a favorite in my house at the moment.  Okra goes great with this dish, and can be prepared separately, steamed or boiled with a splash of vinegar, or added with the meat while it is cooked.

“Picadillo con quimbombo”

Tools:

• Frying Pan
• Wooden spoon
• Sharp Knife

Ingredients:

• Ground pork or chicken
• Okra
• Sofrito
• Tomato Puree
• Water
• Vino Seco
• Salt
• Lime

Preparation:

• Over medium-high to high heat add a little oil and the sofrito.
• Cook for appx 1 minute and then add meat and salt and squirt juice of 1 lime.
• Cook for a few minutes until meat starts to brown and then add appx ¼ cup (or more as needed) of tomato puree.
• Add ½ to 1 cup water and let cook on high for about 5 minutes or until liquid cooks out.
• Add about 2 tsp vino seco (if desired) right after you remove from heat and before plating.

Sides/Accompaniments: -Serve with okra over white rice with sliced avocado or tomato.

“Recipe: Cuban Mayonnaise”

- “Desired color and consistency for the mayonnaise”

Despite a life-long love for everything edible, I have never developed a taste for mayonnaise.  An unfortunate warning diagram on a tub of mayonnaise in a restaurant I worked at in Austin, Texas depicting a baby falling head-first to its death in aforementioned tub of mayonnaise turned my dislike of mayonnaise into an outright fear of the creamy condiment.  So of course, when I arrived at the house of a good friend for one of my first social gatherings in Cuba back in September, what was on the menu for lunch but Cuban bread and home-made mayonnaise….I was in a pickle!  My fear of offending my host overwhelmed my fear of the Elmer’s glue-colored substance before me, so I spooned on a generous dollop and took a bite.

Cuban mayonnaise is delicious!  Nothing like our yucky, greasy, baby-killing abomination!  It is tangy and garlicky and a little spicy and oh-so-perfect on bread with a few slices of fresh tomato.

I figure if Cuban mayo can convert me, it is a recipe that must be shared with the rest of the world!  Enjoy J

“Mayonesa”

Tools:

• Sharp Knife
• Blender
• Measuring Spoons

Ingredients:

• 4-5 cloves garlic
• ½-1/4 white onion
• 2 tsp coarse salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 Tbsp white vinegar
• ¾-1 ½ c oil

Preparation:

• Peel garlic and onion
• Slice desired amount of onion (based on personal tastes)
• Smash garlic but do not chop
• Add garlic, onion, salt, egg and vinegar to blender and blend on high until thoroughly combined.
• Remove the plastic cap at the top of the blender and begin to add oil.  In a constant, steady stream add the oil to the blender.  Eventually you will actually hear the difference in the sound of the blades as the consistency thickens and the mayonnaise begins to turn white.  When the color and texture appears correct you may stop the blender for a taste test.

“Recipe- Cuban Salad”

One variation of Cuban salad

Salad is a term used very loosely in Cuban cooking.  Basically, if it is a vegetable that is served with the meal and was not cooked with the meat, it is a salad.  This can mean a side of boiled and chilled green beans or okra with a few squirts of vinegar and a dash of salt, or an array of fresh veggies in season at the farmers market with a few squirts of fresh lime.  Ultimately, the salad of the evening depends of what is available in the house or what is in season at the moment.

Notably absent from Cuban salads, however, are the lettuces that practically define our salads in the US.  White cabbage is frequently used to add texture, and bitter baby lettuces, when in season, can appear on Cuban dinner tables from time to time as well… but the main players in these salads are the other veggies.  So if you are hoping to make an authentic Cuban dinner, go run off to your local farmers market and pick up any variety of the ingredients listed below for a nice vitamin and fiber-packed Cuban salad.

                                        “Ensalada”

Tools:

•  Knife

Ingredients (all optional):

• Avocado (aguacate)
• Cucumber (pepino)
• Tomato (tomate)
• Cabbage (Col) – shredded
• Fresh Basil (Albahaca)
• Okra (Quimbombo)  — boil or steam and then chill
• Green Beans (Habichuelas) –boil or steam and then chill
• Fresh Cilantro (Cilantro)
• Lime
• Vinegar
• Oil
• Salt

Preparation:

•  Cuban salads are all about the presentation.  If the salad of the night is just tomatoes, you can bet it will be the prettiest plate of “just tomatoes” you have seen.  So slice nicely and arrange decoratively on the plate.
• The “dressing” is added once the veggies are plated.  The majority of the veggies get a light drizzle of oil, a splash of vinegar, and sprinkle salt over all.  For avocado, try to avoid contaminating it with anything other than fresh lime juice and salt!

“Recipe- Fritura de Malanga”

As further support for my theory that the malanga is like a potato, this dish tastes exactlythe same as potato pancakes!!  With the exception that Cubans will often add a little leftover pork to the fritura before frying it, this Fritura de malanga has the same consistency as the potato pancake, and goes great with fried egg for breakfast or rice and ensalada for dinner.

“Fritura de malanga”

Tools:

•  Large knife
• Cheese grater
• Frying pan
• Spatula

Ingredients:

• Large malanga (or potato)
• Sofrito (aji, ajo, cebolla)
• 2 eggs
• Shredded leftover pork (if desired)
• Milk
• Salt
• Oil

Preparation:

• Peel and wash malanga and shred into large bowl with a cheese grater.
• Add sofrito, salt, and eggs and mix together.
• If you need more moisture you may add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until the mixture takes on a nice sticky consistency.
• Heat oil or butter on a griddle or large skillet over medium-high heat and place ¼ cup of the mixture evenly spaced throughout the pan.
• Cook for appx 1-2 minutes until brown and then flip, smushing into a disc with the back of the spatula.
• Serve hot.

“Recipe: Tostones”

“Green plantains, perfect for tostones!”

I can always tell when my Cuban family is planning to make tostones, because the dad is out of the front porch in complete silence with a big knife peeling the plantains,
discarding the skins in a bag and meticulously placing the white plantains in a large pot to be rinsed later.  According to the Cubans, it is bad luck to talk to someone when they are peeling plantains…a job that requires concentration so as to not cut the fruit.

Tostones are kind of like Cuban potato chips, only way better!!!  These can be
prepared in a variety of ways.  For example, using the small, fat plantains, (burros),
you can slice them lengthwise into narrow strips. (See picture)  Or, using the large, traditional plantains (machos), you can chop the fruit into circles and smash them into disks half way through the frying process.  Either way, the end result is the same!

At large Cuban gatherings in the past, tostones were prepared in mass quantities using the same frying oil used to prepare chicharron while the pig cooked over the spit.  (Chicharron is a sinfully addictive but horribly fattening, artery-clogging, life
threatening snack that is scarily popular among Cubans…you basically take the
skin and fat of the pig and cut it into little pieces and fry it until crispy.)  At these large Cuban parties, some of the skin and fat were removed from the pig before cooking to prepare the chicharron, and the tostones were later fried in the same grease while the chicharron cooled.  Then the guests munched on tostones and chicharron while waiting for the pork and congris.

This is a great starter if you are planning on throwing a Cuban dinner party, and you can leave off the garlic and onion if you have any picky eaters coming for dinner.

“Tostones”

Tools:

• Large sharp knife
• Frying Pan
• Paring knife or garlic press
• Fork

Ingredients:

•  GREEN Plantains (if the plantains are yellow or black they will be too sweet for tostones)
• Oil
• 4-5 cloves Garlic
• Small White onion

Preparation:

• VERY CAREFULLY peel the plantains.  Be aware that they may secrete a sticky, white/milky substance, so wash the knife and your hands thoroughly after
  peeling.
•  Slice or cut plantains in desired manner
• Prep garlic and onion.  Peel and chop.  Set aside.
• Pour generous amount of oil in frying pan over medium heat (enough to cover the bottom of the pan and come at least half way up the plantains when added.)
• Add plantains to pan a few at a time, being careful not to overcrowd the pan.
• There should not be a sound like frying bacon, only a light sizzle.  These need to cook slowly until they brown only slightly, if the oil is too high they will burn on the outside but not cook.
• Use a fork to flip plantains once bottom begins to brown.  Remove after 1 or 2 minutes on the other side.  Place on cooling rack or plate with paper towel (to collect oil) when done.
• When all tostones are ready, turn the flame to high and add garlic and onion to the hot oil.  Swirl oil in the pan for 30 seconds to a minute, allowing the garlic and onion to cook only slightly, but maintain their crunch.
• Using a spoon, collect the garlic and onion with only a little oil and spoon over the tostones.
• Serve immediately.

 

“Crisp tostones with flash-fried garlic and

 

 

“Recipe: Cuban Black Beans”

“Potaje veggies prepped and ready to add to the pot of beans”

More like a hearty stew than a simple bean dish, potaje is a nutrient-rich Cuban meal that is simple and cheap to make.  You can alter the recipe to include more meat,  more veggies, less beans, or whatever you like based on your tastes.  This can be served with rice or alone as a stew in the winter months (referring to YOUR winter months, as the coldest It will get down here is 65…)

(**Technically, when made with black beans, this dish is called guizo, with white beans, judía and with kidney beans, potaje.)

If you have an extra ham or turkey bone from the holidays, this is a great excuse to use it, as you can throw the bone in the soup pot with the beans while you prepare them, adding a great flavor and some additional protein to the potaje.

“Potaje” 

Tools:

•  Large knife
• Large soup pot with lid or pressure cooker
• Ladle

Ingredients (Most Optional):

• Black Beans
• Ham Bone
• Chorizo
• Green Plantain
• Malanga
• Potato
• Sweet Potato
• Squash
• Cilantro
• Salt
• Water

Preparation:

• Place Beans (and ham bone, if desired) in the reina and fill almost to top with water.  Cook for 90 minutes until beans are tender.
• While the beans cook, peel and chop all veggies to stew-sized pieces.
• Add veggies and salt to the pressure cooker and cook another 15 to 20 minutes.

US Variation-Without a Pressure Cooker:

• Prepare the beans, reserving soaking water.  (May add bone to soup pot as the beans cook) When beans are thoroughly cooked and water is black, add the veggies.  Place lid on pot and cook until all veggies are tender.
• If you choose to use canned beans:  Add 2 cans of beans to the pot with
  liquid.  Fill the pot almost to the top with water.  Add veggies and meat.  Cook with lid on pot until tender.

Sides/Accompaniments:

-Serve over white rice with a squirt of lime and fresh cilantro.

“Potaje served over white rice.”

 

“Recipe: Congris”

- “Congris, an essential part of the typical Cuban Dinner”

Congris, moros y cristianos, moros rice,
white rice and black beans… whatever you choose to call it, this simple criollo dish is a staple in Cuban food
today.  A perfect mixture of
carbohydrates, protein and fiber, this is a great post-workout snack,
especially for distance runners.  In
addition, it is the perfect accompaniment for any meat dish with dinner, or
even top a half a cup of congris with
an egg and some banana for a fuel-filled breakfast.

 

“Congris”

Tools:

 

• Sharp knife
• Rice cooker
• Slotted spoon

 

Ingredients:

 

• Black beans
• Sofrito (aji, ajo, cebolla)
• Salt
• Rice
• Oil
• Cilantro
• Lime

 

Preparation:

 

• Place beans and water in pressure cooker and
  prep for 45 minutes.
• Prepare sofrito- garlic, onion, peppers
• When cooked and slightly cooled, place rice in
  rice cooker, adding 1 cup bean liquid per 1 cup of rice.
• Use slotted spoon to add beans to rice cooker
• Add sofrito, salt and 1 tablespoon oil.  Stir and start rice cooker.
• When done, squirt juice of 1 lime and add some
  fresh cilantro.  Stir and serve.

 

US Variation-Without a Pressure Cooker:

 

Congris can be prepared using canned black
beans, though I recommend preparing the beans on your own.  My Cuban cooking instructors insist that you
have to reserve the same water you soaked and prepared the beans in to prepare
with the rice…both because the black color of the water is what gives the rice
its color, and because they say the vitamins in the beans are retained in the
water during the soaking process.

To prepare the beans on your own: soak
overnight in a large bowl full of water.
Put beans and all of the water in a large saucepan with a lid and cook
until beans are tender and water is black.

 

Sides/Accompaniments:

Congris
as a lunch or dinner dish is great with a squirt of lime and some fresh
cilantro.  You may also add more fiber by
slicing in some fresh tomato, avocado, cucumber, or whatever fresh veggies you
have on hand.

 

 

“Recipe: Mermelada de Guayaba”

A very common and simple dessert in Cuban households, mermalada deguayaba is like a tropical applesauce (though with a slightly different texture).  While the traditional preparation is with guava, this is also made using mango when they are in season, so if you are unable to find guava in the stores, feel free to substitute.

“Mermelada de guayaba”

Tools:

•  Paring knife

Ingredients:

• 12 guava
• coarse sugar

Preparation:

• Remove bad spots from guava with paring knife and then slice in half.
• Add all to boiling pot of water and cook 15-20 minutes until tender.
• Allow to cool a little and then add to blender and blend until smooth.
• Pour through fine colander (mesh sieve) to allow water to drain.
• Add guava pulp to bowl and combine with sugar
  (Approximately ¾ cup sugar per 2 cup pulp.)
• Chill and serve

**May follow this same recipe with mango!!!**

 

 

 

“Recipe: Yucca with Mojito”

• 
• “This is what yucca looks like before you peel and cook it”

The time has come to share with my katieincuba readers the recipe for my favorite dish in Cuba, “yucca with mojito”. Noooooo….not that kind of mojito!  In this case, mojito is a sauce consisting of garlic and lime and oil….and it is oh, so yummy!!!!!!!      A common root vegetable, yucca comes in various sizes and is cheap and full of
nutrients.  According to a friend from Granma, a trick in the Cuban countryside is if you buy a ton of yucca and will not use all of it before it spoils, you dig a hole in the soil and place the yucca in the earth, cover it with dirt and add a little water.  With this method of preservation the yucca will last for weeks.  Otherwise, if you do not use the yucca within a few days of buying it, it can form a blue type of mold throughout and spoil.   Once you have the basics down of this dish, such as the process of selecting and peeling the yucca itself, this is a VERY easy and inexpensive dish.  It is also a great source of carbs for my distance runner friends who are still in training during the winter months.  Just have patience with these stubborn veggies and you will find it is worth the wait!

“Yuca con mojito”

Tools:

•  Big, strong, non-serrated knife
• Soup pot with lid or Pressure Cooker
• Paring knife
• fork
• slotted Spoon

Ingredients
(Appx. for 2 people):

•  3 or 4 yucca, depending on size
• Coarse salt
• Oil (a few tablespoons)
• 3 or 4 garlic cloves
• 1 or 2 limes (depending on juice content)
• 1 small white onion (optional)

Preparation:

 Step 1- Peeling the Yucca

• (This is a process that takes practice and you need to pay attention and really FEEL the yucca.  Do not be discouraged if you demolish a few in the process while you get the hang of things, just try not to slice your hand. Also, keep in mind that some yuccas allow you to remove the skins more easily than others, and these are often the ones that taste best.) Holding the knife in your dominant hand and the yucca firmly in the other, remove the ends of the yucca with one swift chop.  They should separate easily and cleanly, revealing a clean white interior of the yucca. If they cut easily (“se pican bien”), the Cubans say they cook better.
•  If the yucca is larger you may cut in half so that the entire piece fits nicely in your palm. Place firmly in your palm without wrapping your fingers around the yucca.  Very firmly and carefully, slice the blade lengthwise into the yucca so that it penetrates the skin from top to bottom, but does not cut into the meat of the vegetable. Slowly angle the blade to apply force to remove the skin.  Again, for some this will begin to peel away like an orange. Others will require more work, like a potato.
• Continue until skin is completely removed, being careful not to remove too much of the yucca itself.
•  Thoroughly wash brown sediment from yucca until white.  Shave away spots that will not wash off.
• Wash knife thoroughly.

Step 2- Cooking the Yucca

• Place yucca in reina, cover with water that covers the tops of all by a few inches.
• Add a generous dash of coarse salt.
•  Seal pressure cooker and cook for 30-45 minutes or until the majority have plumped and are tender. (Use fork method like with potatoes.)
• Remove from water with slotted spoon and place on serving dish.
• Remove obvious fibers/strings (located in center of each yucca.)

Step 3- Preparing the Mojito

• Peel garlic (and onion) and thinly slice.
• Cover bottom of frying pan with oil.  Heat oil over medium-high heat.
• When oil is very hot, remove from flame and add garlic (and onions, if desired).  Swirl oil in pan until garlic begins to brown. (Be careful not to burn the garlic!)
• Squirt lime into oil and garlic mixture.

Step 4- Plating the Dish

• Drizzle mojito directly over top of yucca and serve immediately.

***Variation***  

In my opinion as an eater, the preparation listed above is the best way to eat yucca.  However, another preparation of this method exists that is very popular here, as well as in Cuban restaurants in the US.

To prepare FRIED Yucca with Mojito:

•  Follow all of the above steps for prepping and boiling the yucca.
• Be sure to remove the yucca from the cooking water before they become so tender that they begin tearing apart.
•  Remove them from the water and place in a colander to cool and drain water
•  When the yucca is cool enough to touch, place all on large cutting board.
• Slice in half lengthwise and remove strings/fibers from center.
•  Depending on the size of the yucca, continue to cut into quarters or eighths lengthwise until they have the rough appearance of french fries.
•  Heat a generous amount of oil in a large frying pan until very hot, add yucca a little at a time, cooking until browned on all sides and then plating, adding a little more salt if desired.
• When all of the yucca are fried to perfection, you may drizzle the mojito over the plate or serve it on the side as a dipping sauce.

US Variation-Without a Pressure Cooker:

•  Place peeled and washed yucca in large soup pot.
• Cover with water that covers the tops of all by a few inches.
• Add generous amount of salt, cover and bring to a boil.
• Allow yucca to cook for 25-30 minutes after water begins to boil before checking tenderness.  Some yucca will be done in this time, while others require a longer cooking time.  Remove when tender.

• “My new favorite dish!”

 

 

“Recipe: Arroz con Leche”

This dessert, which is very similar to traditional rice pudding, is so engrained in Cuban culture that there is a popular children’s song called “arroz con leche”.

           “Arroz con leche”

• Se quiere casar
•  Con una viudita de la capital 
• * ring, rang * Que sepa coser
•  Que  sepa bordar
• Que ponga la guja
•  En su caneval
• * ring, rang * 

 While every Cuban family prepares arroz con leche a bit differently, and there also seems to be an ongoing debate among Cuban women about arroz con leche made with normal white rice versus criollo rice, it is ALWAYS delicious and a great comfort food.

“Arroz con leche”

Tools:

• Rice cooker or large pot with lid

Ingredients:

•  2 cups White Rice
•  Salt
• Whole Milk
•  Coarse Sugar
•  Cinnamon
• Lime

Preparation:

• Cook rice as you would normally prepare white rice, adding a dash of salt.
• Once prepared, add juice of ½ – 1 lime, depending on juice content, and 1 – 1.5 tsp cinnamon.
• Add room temperature milk and cook for 15 minutes more.  (Quantity of milk depends on personal tastes.  Like with oatmeal, there are people who like arroz con leche soupy and others like it thick.  Your best bet is to add only a cup or two here and you can add more later if you want.)
•  Add sugar and stir well.  (Again, amount depends on how sweet you want it, this can be anywhere from ¼ cup to 1 cup.)
  When you serve this in individual bowls, add more room temperature milk and dust with cinnamon or a cinnamon/sugar mix to make it pretty.
• May be served hot or cold.