Tag: cuban food

Cuban-ish Red Beans

Beans are a staple in any Cuban household. From black, to red, to garbanzos and split peas…Cubans have a recipe for them all and beans and rice are a typical accompaniment to any traditional Cuban meal. While I could never be accused of being traditional in any sense, I love beans in all their incarnations and red beans rank right at the top. This recipe is relatively easy to make and keeps well in the fridge for a week. Hopefully you’ll love them as much as I do!

Frijoles Colorados

My recipe is based on my mother’s with some minor changes to make it a bit healthier and to account for my preference for boniato over malanga.

Ingredients:

  • 1 small smoked ham hock
  • 1lb dry red kidney beans
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 red bell pepper, diced
  • 3 -4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 4 oz tomato sauce
  • 1/8 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • bay leaf
  • generous splash of dry white wine (or your preferred cooking wine)
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • calabaza (winter squash) @ 1 lb peeled and cut into large cubes
  • 2 boniato (white sweet potato), peeled and cut into medium cubes
  • 3-4 oz Palacios spanish chorizo, casing removed & cut into 8 pieces
  • 1/4 lb ham steak, cubed

Directions:

  1. Place beans, ham hock, and 10 cups of water in pressure cooker. Set for 20 minutes. Let it depressurize automatically or release pressure manually after 10 minutes. Discard ham hock.
  2. Add all ingredients and stir.
  3. Cook on medium-medium high (so you have a constant roiling boil) for 30-45 minutes. It’s ready when you can pierce the boniato with a fork easily.

The recipe yields about 8 cups. A one cup serving has approximately 200 calories, 10g of fat, and 440mg of sodium. (As always this depends on your brands and salt preferences.) It’s a hearty meal on it’s own but can certainly be served as part of a more elaborate traditional Cuban meal with rice, roasted pork, and baked plantains.

Calabaza
Chorizo
Boniato

Over the years I’ve developed a personal preferance for brands so when I specify, feel free to substitute with your own preferences or whatever may be available in your area. For example, boniato is readily available in areas where Caribbean ingredients and food are common, but not necessarily in other places in the US.

Cuban-ish Chicken Soup

So, I call my chicken soup Cuban-ish because although the core of my ingredients derive from my Cuban heritage, I’ve made so many modifications I doubt my mother would recognize it as having been derived from her recipe once upon a time.

First, I roast a chicken to make the stock. (You can, of course, just use a premade rotisserrie chicken.) When it’s cool, I pull all the meat I can off the bone, making sure to leave behind all the gristle, bone, and skin. I place it in a zip lock or other food storage container in the fridge until I’m ready to make my soup.

Second, I make the stock. You can put pretty much anything you like in a stock. It took me a long time to accept this but it’s true.

There are some base ingredients I always use:

  • 2 onions,
  • 3-5 garlic cloves,
  • 2 celery stalks,
  • 3-5 bird’s eye peppers (use only if you like heat),
  • 2 carrots, roughly 1 tsp whole peppercorns,
  • 2 bay leaves, and
  • 1 tbsp white-wine (or apple cider) vinegar. (The vinegar is the only essential ingredient since it draws out the nutrients and minerals from the bones into the stock.)

If I have parsley or thyme I’ll toss them in as well as any other herb I may have getting past it’s prime in my fridge at the time. Roughly chopped is fine for your ingredients, no need to peel etc. (some say you don’t even need to peel, but I feel like it releases the flavor better).

Place the chicken remnants (bone, skin, and gristle) and all your ingredients in a large stock pot with 6 quarts of water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Let simmer, covered, for at least 4 hours (if you have the time you can do 6 hours). Then strain through a sieve and discard everything but your stock.

Note: Of course, you can skip both these steps and use a rotiserrie chicken and store bought stock (I recommend unsalted). I’ve done it and it’s certainly much faster but it’s NEVER as good.

Third, while the stock simmers I prepare my soup ingridients:

  • 1/2 Calabaza (winter suash) peeled & cut into large chunks
  • 1 large boniato (no real English equivalent but white sweet potato comes closest), peeled and cut into small chunks
  • 2-4 carrots, peeled and cut into 2 inch chunks
  • 2 ears of corn, shucked and cut in half
  • 2-4 oz Diana brand Fideos Finos (any angel hair pasta will do). Quantity is dependent on whether you like thicker soups (like me) or brothier versions.

Finally, when my stock is ready, I toss my ingredients in (except fideos/pasta), don’t forget the chicken!, and salt to taste. I let simmer/low boil for 20-30 minutes (until boniato and carrots can be pierced easily with fork) and then add fideos/pasta and cook for another 10 minutes. Voila!

Yes, it takes all day, but I promise you the taste is worth it!