Jun 9
I’ve wanted to make vaca frita for awhile. Literally translated as “Fried Cow”, I hesitate to order it at Cuban restaurants. While I love the combination of crispy beef and caramelized onions sprinkled with lime, too often it’s more fry than cow. Read more
May 29
I’d been waiting for spring to try these ricotta gnocchis with pea puree and jamón serrano. The ñoquis del 29 are meant to attract prosperity, so a little extra green can’t hurt. Read more
Apr 14
A few weeks ago, a friend gave me a list of Puerto Rican classics to try that included asopao de pollo. As she described it, it’s a Puerto Rican risotto that’s not quite soup and not quite stew. My soups often go to gumbo by mistake so I was curious to know what would happen if I made it that way by design. At Jennifer’s suggestion, I checked my Puerto Rican Cookery book first. I realized after additional searches that there were thousands of recipes for asopao, a one-pot, comfort food solution for family dinners and leftovers. After reading them over, I finally circled back to Carmen Aboy Valldejuli. Read more
Apr 2
I’ve always hated the word leftovers (though it’s invisible to anyone reading this, I’ve written that first sentence three times to avoid using that word to no avail). I love the feeling of having bought, made and served just enough. Though I dutifully store away the smallest amount that remains of any dish or ingredient, I resent it. As someone who often cooks at home with an ongoing game of tupperware jenga going on in her refrigerator, it was time to reconsider how I used the (ugh) leftovers that were piling up. My attitude started to change last week when I was making papas en salsa verde. The recipe suggested serving them with refried beans. With bags of frozen beans periodically jumping at me from the freezer, crashing to the floor, and threatening to knock out one of my yorkies, I decided to defrost some of the black beans I’d already made rather than start from scratch (too late) or open a can (too bland). Having congratulated myself on completing a second recipe from my initial batch of beans, I decided to use the remaining salsa verde to try a third one for pipián verde, a tomatillo sauce combined with toasted pumpkin seeds. Perfect for the last Friday before Easter, I decide to make it again tonight to end the Lenten season. I still don’t like leftovers but I’m starting to like the idea of one dish becoming another and then another and then another… Read more
Mar 8
I hadn’t thought of meatloaf as Latin food until recently. Butifarron, carne fria, albondigas, it was all there I just didn’t make the connection to the heavy cafeteria slices we’d get at school or the bacon wrapped loafs served at a friend’s house. When I found this recipe for butifarrón sabroso in Puerto Rican Cookery, I couldn’t wait to make it. Last week I gathered all of the ingredients and put it together quickly. I ended up with a smooth loaf floured and ready to…fry? Read more
Feb 10
I make beans with an accent. I understand all of the elements, but they don’t always flow together as easily as I would like. A staple of Latin American cooking, I should know them better than I do. Having only developed a taste for them as an adult, I refused all forms of frijoles, lentejas, or garbanzos when I was younger. Now that I appreciate what I’ve been missing and want to make them all the time, I feel like I’m being punished for my earlier brattiness with inconsistent batches of beans. If only I’d paid better attention when my grandparents were cooking, I’d have a freezer full of stews and soups to get me through the winter. Read more
Jan 29
It had been a awhile since I’d posted a recipe for ñoquis del 29. A monthly tradition that promises prosperity in Argentina and Uruguay, I wanted to start the year off right. Looking for a new recipe, I remembered my first attempt at Meyer lemon gnocchis a couple of years ago. I wasn’t sure how to go about it then so I thought it would be a good time to make a fresh batch. Read more
Jan 7
I love the idea of quimbombó, especially the name. Not okra but Kee-Bom-Bo. A quick Google search brings up as many music sites as recipes. If Cuban food were music, quimbombó would be the chorus. Brought to Cuba by African slaves in the seventeenth century, it’s stewed with chorizo or pork then blended with mashed plantains and served over rice. Still recovering from the holidays, I found a recipe using chicken Read more
I am always inclined to buy fresh quinces. I think it’s the soft gray down that clings to them so that they appear freshly hatched, like apples in baby blankets. Actually using them however is a different story. Too often, I leave them on my counter to look pretty and forlorn until I make a last minute attempt at transforming them into some kind of edible paste or jelly. It seemed a shame to always take something fresh and sugar it down to pulp, no matter how delicious it is with manchego. Determined do it differently this time, I started to look for quince recipes that didn’t end in membrillo. Read more
I’ve been wanting to try this second causa recipe, stuffed with chicken for awhile. I was finally got my hands on bottled ají amarillo, the Peruvian peppers that are key to so many recipes but are difficult to find in New York. Though usually served cold, roast chicken wrapped in yellow potatoes then slathered with cheese and lightly browned, seemed like the perfect early fall comfort food. I’m always a little skeptical that it’s going to work, but the pureed potatoes combined with oil and peppers become a perfect kind of molding clay so the only difficult part is stopping yourself from playing with it incessantly so it has time to chill.
Finalist for the 2015 James Beard Foundation Award in the International Cookbook Category for The Cuban Table
hungry sofia 