Last year, while my cousin was studying abroad in Rome and I was still here, in Seville, two of my aunts - including Aunt Laura - with another cousin and my mother decided to roadtrip the coast of southern Ireland. Their weeklong journey rounded the southern border from Galway to Dublin. My father flew across the pond to meet them for a long weekend in Dublin, and so my Roman cousin and I decided to go, too.
As the plan developed, we decided that my two aunts and my cousin - the not Roman one - would come to Spain after Dublin to spend a few days here before heading back. Aunt Laura was really excited. This was her first trip to Europe, so excitement levels were high, in general, but she had taken a special liking to Spain. She even helped me customize my first and made from scratch my second flamenca dress!
Since then, we've talked about getting her back here, and who knows if it'll happen or not, but with this menu I wanted to try to incorporate something moderately Spanish in honor of the failed attempt at arriving on Spanish soil.
Ropa Vieja, which literally translates to "old clothes," is said to be an original dish from the Spanish Canary Islands. It later became popular in the mainland, mainly Cadiz - just an hour from here, as the Canary Islands were the last place that ships would stop on their way to the Americas (and the first stop on the way back). Colonists from the Canary Islands are said to have set up camp in Cuba, bringing the dish to life in the Carribean. It consists of slow-cooked and shredded flank, brisket or skirt steak with thinly-sliced vegetables, sometimes olives and other assorted colorful things. It kind of literally looks like old shredded tattered clothing.
Another popular story is that a man's family came to visit and he was too poor to buy food to feed them all. He went to his closet and gathered some "ropa vieja," old clothes, and saturated them with his love. While he cooked the clothes, his love was so great it converted the clothing into a beautiful beef stew.
The original recipes would use the leftovers from potaje, a Spanish stew, and add tomato sauce and whatever was missing to create another dish the next day. In Spain today, the dish usually includes potatoes and garbanzo beans - and not usually any cumin. In Cuba, however, the recipe calls for shredded beef in a tomato and, usually, cumin-based sauce.
I have a confession though. My Spanish after 3 years in Spain isn't terrible. However, for the life of me, I cannot understand meat cut translations. Granted, I rarely cook with meat to even begin to know what I was looking for. Skirt steak translates the same - so at the supermercado I asked for "falda" and the carnicero pointed to a huge hunk of something that was labeled "aguja" and said it was la misma (the same).
Soooooo either I have no idea how to slow cook beef so that it shreds tenderly and deliciously OR, aguja is not atually la misma as skirt steak. Either way, it all TASTED good. It's not like I was choking on the meat or anything. It just wasn't melt-in-your mouth shredded beef (more like Chinese beef-and-broccoli-better-chew-it beef).
I also really wanted it to look like it does in all the pictures when I google "ropa vieja cuba" and it just....didn't. This is probably also aided to the fact that I am one of the most impatient vegetable choppers in the world and my "finely sliced" veggies are usually the size of grown-men fingers.
Whatever. It's good. I've been eating it for 3 days and would make it again.
Before you try this recipe, though, consult with your grandma, or someone who actually knows something about cooking beef and what to buy. If you could report back to me with a proper translation in Spanish, or any tips, that would be great as well.
Ropa Vieja (the kinda Cuba-ish version)
serves 4 really hungry people
For braising:
1 lb aguja (flank, skirt, brisket) beef
1 red onion halved
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
2 bay leaves
1 tsp toasted cumin seed
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
Water to cover beef
Place all ingredients in a heavy-bottomed pot and simmer on low to medium heat for 1-1.5 hours - until beef is tender. Remove beef and allow to cool on a plate and save 1 cup of broth. When beef is cool, shred it finely with a fork or hands.
For the main dish:
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup broth from braising
1 cup dry white wine
1 large white onion, half-moon sliced
1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced in strips
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced in strips
1/2 eggplant, thinly sliced in strips (this I added because I had it)
2 cloves garlic, slivered
2 bay leaves
1 can tomato puree (or 1 cup pureed tomatoes)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
shredded beef
salt and pepper to taste
optional:
1/2 cup pitted Spanish green olives
1 cup shredded carrots
In a wide, shallow pot, heat the olive oil and add garlic, onions, peppers and eggplant. Sautee for a couple of minutes until veggies begin to soften. Add tomato, cumin, oregano, wine, brother, bay leaves and place the pot on medium-high heat.
When the sauce begins to boil, add the shredded beef and return pot to medium to medium-low heat and simmer everything together for another 10-15 min.
(recipe adapted from - er, loosely inspired by - here)
Serve with yellow rice and fried plantains.
Yellow Rice
serves 4-6 really hungry people
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp toasted cumin seed
1/4 tsp crumbled saffron thread
2 cups long grain rice
4 cups water
3/4 tsp salta
In a heavy 3-quart saucepan heat oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and sauté cuminseed 10 seconds, or until it turns a few shades darker and is fragrant. Stir in saffron and rice and sauté, stirring, 1 to 2 minutes, or until rice is coated well. Stir in water and salt and boil rice, uncovered and without stirring, until surface of rice is covered with steam holes and grains on top appear dry, 8 to 10 minutes more. Remove pan from heat and let rice stand, covered, 5 minutes. Fluff rice with a fork.
(recipe copied exactly from here)
Fried Plantains (er, Bananas)
serves as many as you make
1/2 Tbsp butter
1-2 plantains, bananas, sliced in half long ways
Heat butter on medium heat in a small skillet. Add plantains and cook until browned on both sides, flipping only once.
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