Posts tagged ‘Cuban Cookery’

Oct 10

Pudín de Manzana

My grandmother used to say that there were always apples in Cuba. I’m not sure what she meant but it was an argument-ender. I thought of her when I came across an old Cuban recipe from the 1930s for apple pudding made with Bacardi rum. Though apples aren’t native to the island, rum most definitely is. I waited a few months to try it because, while we do always have apples in New York, I don’t always want them. Out of season, they’re mostly texture and water. Now that the markets are in full fall swing, I decided it was a good alternative to the pies and tarts I’ll be making once the holidays start. Somewhere between a fallen souffle and bread pudding, I served it with lightly whipped cream though next time I might drizzle it with a caramel or rum sauce (for a little more authenticity). Read more

Mar 30

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Lucky Coins

I decided to skip last month’s ñoquis del 29 post on a leap year technicality. Picking up in March, I decided to make cornmeal ñoquis baked in béchamel. I had never associated ñoquis with Cuban cuisine but, after finding several references in a few older Cuban cookbooks, I wanted to try it. The cooked cornmeal is shaped into small discs then baked with white sauce or cheese and put under a broiler. Though not like any ñoquis I’d had before, I thought their similarity to gold coins fitted with the Argentinian tradition of putting a coin or peso under your plate while you ate them to attract greater prosperity. I was a little up in the air about doing another one and questioned whether I really wanted to make ñoquis again so soon. As with most resolutions, the first time is all zeal, the second time may be a fluke, and the third time is when you decide whether or not to stick to it. After some starts and stops, I realized that I looked forward to answering the same question in a different way every month. Hopefully, with some consistency, I can be consistently lucky. 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

Sep 8

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A New Season

I may have waited until the very last weekend of the summer to have my first lobster roll, but now that I had, I wasn’t letting it scuttle away just yet. I decided to try a recipe from the 1930s for Lobster Havanaise, a cross between a Thermidor and Newburg but with rum instead of brandy. The rum is added off heat just before serving so the flavor is very pronounced. I started at Fish Tales in Brooklyn since they’re always helpful and let me take complimentary limes, even on a 1/4 pound of salmon. I almost left empty handed when I realized I would need at least two Maine lobsters to make up for the 2 pounder called for in the recipe. They pointed me instead to the Brazilian rock lobsters right for Caribbean cooking. With no claws, rock lobsters carry all their meat in the tail (no kidding, and I thought the only Cuban element was the rum). Though they’re not as sweet as the Maine variety, they’re in season from the end of the summer through winter, so they’re is plenty of time to play with. Read more

Aug 18

Huevos en Cemitas

A couple of years ago, I found a recipe for eggs baked in brioche that I decided to make for Mother’s Day. It went over better than I’d hoped since it reminded my Mom of a breakfast she’d loved as a little girl in Cuba. Not having had it since then, she vaguely remembered ham and béchamel sauce added to eggs baked in rolls called cemitas. I was especially curious since I’d always thought of traditional Cuban breakfast as pressed pan cubano and cafe con leche. A few weeks ago, a friend lent me her copy of the book Cuban Cookery by Blanche Z. De Baralt. An American who lived in Europe and studied at Packer Collegiate, a few blocks away from where I live now, she moved to Havana at the turn of the century with her husband, a Cuban doctor. Published in 1931, I fell in love with the combination of her Edith Wharton English with her use of “our” and “we” to describe traditional Cuban food. She’d clearly gone native, and I liked her that much more for it. When I found her notes on Huevos en Cemitas or Eggs in Rolls – a hollowed out breakfast roll filled with chopped meat, petits pois, and cream sauce topped with a raw egg and baked till set – I knew I’d found my mother’s missing recipe. Read more