Cuba | hungry sofia

Dec 15

Estrellas de Chocolate

I’ve become deeply suspicious of Cuban cookies. It’s not really the cookie’s fault. They’re just not what we do. Growing up, home baked cookies weren’t foreign but they did have the exoticism of something you’d mostly like get at a friend’s house. Tres leches, meringues, tocino del cielo, flan were home, toll house was not. The last couple of months, I’ve tried a few forgettable variations. I follow the recipes to the letter but cusubes elude me and my caballitos de queque were cinnamon drenched failures. This being the cookie season, I looked though all my Cuban sources for a new recipe that was traditional but workable. Many called for Crisco with 1950’s abandon while others were really turrones (blended with more Crisco). Read more

Dec 6

5 Comments

Figure Eights

There’s always a point when I finish a post and choose a country category that feels a little dishonest. Well not so much dishonest but not the whole elephant either. When I decided to write about Latin food, I knew that it would be a fuzzy focus and difficult to define. Buñuelos, fritters popular throughout Spain and Latin America, are a good example. Originally from the Iberian penninsula, they’re either Arabic or Sephardic, or maybe both. Typically made from a wheat-based dough that’s flavored with anise, they’re rolled into balls or discs and deep fried then topped with a syrup or honey. Read more

Nov 28

4 Comments

Elena Ruz

The Elena Ruz sandwich always seemed a little out of place on the menu. A combination of roasted turkey, cream cheese and strawberry preserves, it floats alongside the heavier ham, lechon asado and cheese melds of Cuban lunch menus – lighter and prettier with a first and last name. Named for Elena Ruz, a Havana socialite who had the unusual combination made to order for her at El Carmelo. Then a fashionable cafe in the 1930s, it landed on the menu becoming a popular item. According to later interviews, her parents were scandalized to see a sign for “Sandwich Elena Ruz 25 centavos” on display, though as she pointed out the other sandwiches only went for 10 cents at the time. Read more

Nov 20

4 Comments

Snow Days

Though it’s typically full, it’s rare to see a line outside of Versailles restaurant in Miami. It’s only on the rare cold night that it actually reaches capacity, especially when there’s a run on churros. Any day that dips below 65 becomes an impromptu holiday in a summer town, a Miami snow day of sprinkled sugar and fried dough. The lines form and the usual late night orders for medianoches and mariquitas become churros and hot chocolate.

I think it’s the special occasion quality I associate with churros that keeps me from buying them in New York (though I’d never pass them up in Madrid – I’m not crazy). Yesterday, deciding I needed a little Christmas now, I brought out the churrera, that my mother who hates to cook but loves kitchen gadgets sent, and my Read more

Nov 13

Soup Day

I’ve wanted to try this recipe for shrimp soup since the summer and decided it was the perfect cold, rainy day for it. The sky even look liked soup. Finding recipes in old cookbooks is always a mixed bag. I wish they had a little more detail, but at the same time, they’re liberating. I pay more attention to finding egg shaped potatoes and watching for what supposed to happen as opposed to the timer. A good way to pass a dreary fall day. Read more

Oct 9

8 Comments

Fantasy Island

I’ve always known that if stranded on a desert island and forced to choose only one dish to eat for the rest of my life, it would be arroz con pollo. I understand that this is ridiculous. Obviously, with the plethora of fresh seafood available on a desert island, paella makes more sense. Nevertheless, the scenario itself is unlikely, so I allow myself to imagine an arroz con pollo eternity. With beer instead of wine, more chicken and less rice, a little burnt on the bottom, it’s always the perfect one-pot Cuban comfort meal. My choice is made. What would your desert island dish be? Read more

Sep 30

3 Comments

Pan de Medianoche

Recently, when I was asking friends and family how they felt about the sandwich Cubano, I was surprised at how many said they preferred medianoches. Similar to the Cubano but smaller and sweeter, the medianoche or “midnight” sandwich was sold in Havana nightclubs to tired dancers at late night cafes. Also tired from my last miss at making a pan de agua loaf, I decided to medianoche bread instead. If you live in South Florida, making Cuban bread at home makes as much sense as churning your own butter. It’s as easy to find there as it’s impossible everywhere else, so I was excited to see this recipe for the challah-like bread on the Three Guys From Miami site. I spent all day fussing over the rolls like a nervous mother – will the yeast bubble, do I knead more, will they rise? Read more

Sep 28

2 Comments

Palacio de los Jugos

I’ve wanted to write about El Palacio de los Jugos, Miami’s landmark-fruit stand, take out, pork corner-but didn’t now where to begin. The last time I visited I was a little surprised at just how out of place I felt there among the steady chaos. I hadn’t been home for awhile and felt shy of asking too many questions, showing myself for the tourist I had become. Luckily, Fernando, a regular who the woman at the counter tolerated with a grudging smile, was next to us. Unprompted, he pointed out the things we couldn’t leave without and in a few minutes we had fresh tamales, chicharrones de puerco, homemade guava paste and queso blanco the owners bring in from their farm. My friend Lydia Martin’s recent article for the Miami Herald, “Palacio de los Jugos: Where Miami Goes for a Taste of Cuba,” makes sense of the bustling market and tells the story of the family at its heart.

Sep 21

5 Comments

Once Upon A Fig

There was a fig tree in the backyard of the house where my grandfather was born in Yaguajay, Cuba. I know this because he told me the story-often. Having moved with his family to Havana, he found himself in the province years later and decided to knock on the door of his old house. He asked the family living there if they had a fig tree, and they brought him through the house and showed it to him. Only then did he tell them who he was and how he knew it was there. I always wondered why they’d let him go through the house in the first place and pictured their polite confusion while they waited to see where all this was going. Read more

Sep 18

4 Comments

Estrellitas

If you’ve ever been to a Cuban bakery, you know that the only question is how you’d like you’re guava. In puff pastry, shortbread, masa real, with crackers or as flan, I never get tired of it. Cupcakes were inevitable. I’ve been making guava cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for friends but hadn’t come across just the right combination till last week. I tried small pieces of guava paste that sank to the bottom and guava jelly that was undetectable. Preserves piped in just after baking worked the best, but I haven’t found them outside of Florida. Tired of hoarding the tiny jars I’d bring back from Miami, I found a recipe for an easy filling made of guava paste, orange and rum. A Cuban solution for a Cuban cupcake. Read more