But let’s start with some bread.\u00a0 Last week’s Croatian meal marked the first appearance of lard in this blog, and oddly enough, it reappears this week.\u00a0 (Good thing, too – we’ve still got quite a bit left.) This recipe starts by melting the lard, and slowly, slowly mixing it with a blend of regular and bread flower.\u00a0 But not as slowly as last week’s 30 minute mixing time for the nut roll!\u00a0 Just regular slowly.\u00a0 Once the dough has come together, you let it rise for an hour, roll it out, and then roll it into a long, baguette shaped loaf.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After another rise, it goes in the oven and comes out… gorgeous.<\/p>\n This loaf was incredibly soft, and super rich.\u00a0 Lard may have to become a regular addition to our bread arsenal.\u00a0 It made fantastic sandwiches the next day, too.<\/p>\n On to the main event!\u00a0 The traditional cut of meat for\u00a0ropa vieja\u00a0<\/em>in Cuba would be flank steak, but only because it shreds nicely.\u00a0 Source after source pointed out that it’s actually a poor choice of meat for a long, slow braise, because it’s got very little fat.\u00a0 Chuck and brisket are suggested as much better choices, and since brisket was somewhat less bonkers expensive, we went with that.<\/p>\n There are a million recipes for this online, and a million people with strong opinions that any given recipe is either excellent or terrible.\u00a0 I went with one from Bon App\u00e9tit that seemed a happy medium, but we did make a few changes, which I’ll point out as they come up.<\/p>\n First the meat is given a nice sear on both sides.\u00a0 (Our Dutch oven couldn’t quite handle the whole brisket, so we chopped it in half.)<\/p>\n Sorry the picture’s a bit blurry.\u00a0 I promise the actual meat was in much better focus.\u00a0 We hadn’t gotten to the rum yet.<\/p>\n Once the meat is colored, you pull it out of the pot, and soften up some onions, peppers, garlic, and tomatoes with spices to make a base.\u00a0 Our first change at this point was to replace the sweet paprika in the recipe with achiote, for two reasons.\u00a0 One, it’s probably more authentic, and two, we didn’t HAVE any sweet paprika.\u00a0 (See last week’s error in that regard with the cabbage rolls.)<\/p>\n Once the sauce is ready to go, you tuck the beef back in for a nice long soak in a low oven. Like, three and a half hours long.\u00a0 There are lots of recipes for doing this in a pressure cooker, and we’ll likely use one of those next time.<\/p>\n After an impossibly long wait, the stew is super aromatic, and the beef is ready to be shredded.<\/p>\n Finally, the shredded beef is tossed back into the pot, along with white vinegar for finishing and some sliced olives.\u00a0 I imagine some sort of citrus, like orange juice, would also be fine instead of vinegar here.<\/p>\n We departed from the recipe here by NOT adding cilantro, as it seemed to be universally scorned as a garnish by every Cuban person who commented on the recipes we looked at.<\/p>\n We also made a side dish and a drink to accompany our meal.\u00a0 For our side, the obvious choice was Cuban style rice and beans.\u00a0 The beans are cooked for almost as long as the meat, and topped at the end with a mix of saut\u00e9ed onions, peppers, and spices.<\/p>\n Beans at the START of cooking. The water was NOT this color at the end!<\/p><\/div>\n And finally, I believe I mentioned rum?<\/p>\n “American Chopper” a few weeks ago, Jack Sparrow now.\u00a0 We’re going to be a meme blog before you know it.<\/p>\n No.\u00a0 No we are not.\u00a0 However, we ARE going to make Batidos! One of the things I miss\u00a0 about Michigan is a little Cuban restaurant in Ann Arbor, “Frita Batidos.” They have AMAZING burgers.\u00a0 Eat there if you have a chance.\u00a0 But the SECOND part of their name refers to a traditional Cuban drink made with milk, ice, and fruit.\u00a0 And possibly rum.<\/p>\n While almost any kind of fruit is possible, we decided to go with an inexplicably Pixar-branded pineapple.<\/p>\n Our blender decided to die halfway through making these, but that’s OK, because we had also forgotten to refill the ice cube trays, so there wasn’t much ice for the food processor to deal with.\u00a0 Final product, after the obligatory splash of rum:<\/p>\n And here’s our full tropical Cuban meal, in the middle of our rainy Vancouver December:<\/p>\n Doesn’t that look amazing?\u00a0 It totally was.\u00a0 Leftovers for days, too.\u00a0 The beef was sour and tangy and delicious, the beans were rich and flavorful, and the soft bread was perfect for soaking everything up.<\/p>\n Also, there was rum.<\/p>\n Next time, it’s another island – Cyprus!<\/p>\n Recipes: <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s been less than a week, but it’s the holidays!\u00a0 Lots of free time, lots of rain outside, and a pandemic still going on, so why not cook?\u00a0 Today we head to Cuba, land of cigars and pig bays.\u00a0 We … Continue reading
\n![\"Lard](\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/20201228_121210.jpg\")
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\nRopa Vieja<\/a>
\nPan Cubano (Cuban Bread)<\/a>
\nCuban Beans<\/a>
\nBatidos<\/a><\/p>\n