Cuban Food Recipes - First Course

Baked Breaded Chicken (Pollo empanizado al Horno)

Wed, 12 Apr 2006 19:13:19 +0200

Cooking instructions:

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.

Escabeche (Pickled Fish)

Wed, 12 Apr 2006 19:13:19 +0200

Cooking instructions:

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.

Minced meat (picadillo)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

Sauté 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

Pork with red kidney beans (froijoles colorados con carne de puerco)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

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 sauté the chopped onion, then add the chopped pepper; sauté 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.

Saffron rice, basic recipe (arroz amarillo, receta básica)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

Put the oil into a pot; add the finely chopped garlic and onion, the cumin and the tomato sauce and sauté 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.

Okra rice (Arroz con quimbombo)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

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 sauté 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.

Chicken roasted in a pressure cooker (pollo asado en la olla de presión)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

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.

Pork chops in bittersweet sauce (costillas de cerdo en salsa agridulce)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

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.

Crab stew (cangrejo enchilado)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

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.

Mornay Crabs (Cangrejos Mornay)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

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 béchamel 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.

Pork with navy beans (judías con cerdo)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

Soak the navy beans for 2 hours; change the water and boil until tender; drain and keep the water they were cooked in.

In a pot, place alternate layers of navy beans and bacon.

Combine the rest of the ingredients with a cup of the water the beans were cooked in. Keep boiling.

Pour it all over the navy beans, the bacon and the onion and add more water until the pot fills. Cover and cook in the oven at 250ºF for approx. 7 or 8 hours.

Add more water if too dry. For the last hour, take the cover off the pot to let the surface brown.

Stuffed potatoes (papas rellenas)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

Make a potato puree and season only with salt to taste.
Shape into small balls stuffed with canned meat, ham, seafood, cheese or fish.

Coat the balls in beaten egg and ground crackers or breadcrumbs. Fry just before serving.

Bigger ones are made in the same way.

Vaca Frita

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

Pound and shred the meat to taste after it is tender.

Season it with crushed garlic, Seville orange or lemon juice and salt.

Minutes before serving, fry in sizzling hot oil.

Casserole Tamale (tamal en cazuela)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

Cube the meat and season it with garlic and lemon. Stir fry the meat and depending on the amount of fat shed, add enough oil to make a sauce with the onion, the pepper, the tomato and the dry wine. Blend the ground corn with the water. Strain it and add it to the meat in the sauce. Cook for about an hour stirring occasionally to prevent from sticking. Season it with salt and pepper to taste.

Chicken broth (caldo de pollo)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

Cut the meat in slices two to three inches thick. Combine all the ingredients into a pot. Let them soak for half an hour. Put the pot over the fire and bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for about two hours. The pot must be kept covered. Strain the broth.