Cuban Food Recipes

After chicken is cleaned and drawn, wash well, cut into serving portions, and weigh. Do not remove chicken skin. Season the chicken. Rub seasonings well into chicken pieces on both sides.
Put bread crumbs on a sheet of waxed paper. Dip the chicken into the eggs beaten with salt and then cover the chicken pieces thoroughly with the crumbs.

Grease a baking dish and place chicken pieces in it. Dot the surface with butter.
Preheat oven 400 degrees F. and cook the chicken, uncovered, for 40 minutes.

Make sauce, by combining olive oil, vinegar, peppercorns, salt, bay leaves, onions, oregano, and green peppers in a large stainless steel kettle and cook slowly for 1 hour. Cool sauce and set aside.

Rinse fish in running water and dry. Sprinkle lime juice over the fish slices and season with the 3-1/2 teaspoons salt. Flour both sides of the slices lightly.

In a frying pan heat olive oil with minced garlic cloves. Remove garlic as soon as it is brown.

Add as many fish slices as will fit in the pan and brown over moderate heat on both sides. Lower the heat and cook the slices for 15 minutes. Fry remaining slices in the same way.

Remove fish and arrange in a deep glass dish as follows Pour a little cool sauce over a few fish slices in bottom of dish. Fill dish with alternate layers of fish slices, green stuffed olives and sauce.

Cover and put in the refrigerrator for at least 24 hours before serving. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Saute the chopped onion, the crushed garlic and the pepper in the lard; add the meats and the ham and cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly to prevent the meats from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Add the remaining ingredients and cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes

Soak the beans in the 4 cups of water for about 2 hours. Chop the boneless pork into 5 or 6 cm. chunks.

Crush the cloves of garlic with the salt, the pepper, the oregano and the cumin; add the Seville orange juice and coat the pork with this marinade.

When the beans are puffy, cook in the same water they were soaked, for about 45 minutes (or 15 minutes if you are using a pressure cooker) or until they are a little tender.

Cook the boneless pork with the marinade until dry.

Heat the oil and saute the chopped onion, then add the chopped pepper; saute for a few minutes; add the tomato sauce, the ground sweet red peppers and the dry wine.

Combine the beans, the pork and the sauce; cook over low heat, well covered, for about ½ an hour.

Put the oil into a pot; add the finely chopped garlic and onion, the cumin and the tomato sauce and saute until the onion looks golden. Add the rice and stir for a few minutes, add the stock and the bay leaf, stir well. Stir in the salt, place the peppers, clean and chopped, over the stock and cover.

Cook over medium heat until it comes to a boil, stir, lower the heat and simmer until the rice is very tender and still looks wet. Stir and turn the heat off. Let cool covered.

This rice is served slightly soppy. While cooking, you may add bits of the chicken, pork, fish, seafood or vegetables already used to make the stock, which is an important part of this recipe. This will give your rice the final flavor.

For a little extra, you may also add as part of the basic recipe, at the time of lowering the heat, some green peas giving the rice a nice appearance and a very special flavor.

You can use the okra whole or sliced. Remove the tip and the small stem.

Toss the okra into the water or the stock with lemon. Make a sauce with the lard, the onion, the garlic, the green pepper, the parsley, the tomato sauce and the ham or any other kind of recommended meat.

Add the dry wine, the salt and the pepper. Then stir in the drained okra and saute for 2 or 3 minutes.

Add the water or the stock with annatto and, when it comes to a boil, add the rice, rinsed if necessary. Cover and cook over medium heat until the rice is tender.

Chop the chicken in eights, place it in the pressure cooker with the rest of the ingredients and cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes.

Mix the sauce ingredients and refrigerate overnight.

On the following day rub the seasoning on the pork chops and marinate for 2 hours, then add the sauce and let it all rest for at least another hour.

Turn on the oven at 450ºF, place the pork chops on the grill (with the oven tray below) and bake for 15 minutes.

Lower the oven temperature to 350º F and grill for approximately 1 hour; brush occasionally with the sauce and turn the chops so that they are evenly browned on both sides.

Scrub and wash the crabs under running water. Remove the pincers, shell the crabs and crush the pincers slightly with a pestle.

Cube the crabmeat and, if the pincers are very large, you can split them in half.

Stir fry the crabmeat cubes and proceed as in the shrimp stew recipe.

Combine the crabmeat with the sauce. Pour into individual molds. Sprinkle with the grated cheese and the ground crackers. Bake at 375 ºF until the surface is golden.

Prepare the bechamel sauce as follows: use ¾ cups of the milk or stock to mix with 6 tablespoons of flour, blend and season with the pepper and nutmeg, if desired, add lemon juice or wine after it thickens.

To this white sauce add ¼ cup of cheese and 1/8 teaspoon of pepper and as a result you get the Mornay sauce.