One dinner that our mother absolutely excelled at was beef stew. I could not eat anyone else’s due to the fact that I held mami’s in such high regard, none could come close, not even at the restaurants. As my brother and I got older and she worked longer hours,Continue Reading
Ropa vieja translates to “old clothes”. It gets the name from the beef having the appearance of tattered clothes and while it may sound far from appetizing to refer to a savory dish as old, tattered clothing, this dish is anything but! It is exquisitely simple in terms of ingredientsContinue Reading
The literal translation for “vaca frita” is “fried cow”, which is not exactly the most appetizing name. However, the fact is that this is one of the tastiest steak dinners in Cuban cuisine. It’s basically a fried flank steak that gets parboiled, shred apart when tender, and then re-fried withContinue Reading
Picadillo is known as the “poor man’s meal”. It is a pork and ground beef hash which is a combination of savory and sweet thanks to the inclusion of raisins, olives, capers, peas, and potatoes. Served over a bed of rice and often with a side of fried ripe plantains,Continue Reading
My only memory of mami making tamales was the excessive cursing at spooning the corn and pork mixture into the husk and tying them properly so they wouldn’t fall apart in the pressure cooker. After two separate attempts at making them this way, she gave it up in favor ofContinue Reading