Cuban Food Recipes - Beef

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

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.

Meat croquettes

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

Cooking instructions:

Lightly sauté the finely chopped onion in the butter, add the milk mixed with the flour, the salt and the pepper.

Cook this sauce until it reaches a double cream thickness and it’s possible to see the bottom of the pot when stirred with a spoon; remove it from the heat and add the dry wine or lemon and the meat stirring vigorously.

Let cool this thick paste and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Then take the paste by spoonfuls and shape it into croquettes, coat twice in beaten egg and breadcrumbs or ground crackers.

Leave the croquettes at room temperature for a while before deep frying until golden brown.

This recipe makes approx. 20 middle sized croquettes or 40 small ones for serving at parties or as appetizers.

Casserole roasted beefsteak (Bistec Asado en Cazuela)

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

Cooking instructions:

Pound the meat and marinate it in crushed garlic and Seville orange juice. Stir fry the marinated meat with onion and pepper until the onion is translucent. Add the marinade and the rest of the ingredients. Cover the pot and simmer until the meat is tender, for about 30 minutes.

Meatballs (albondigas)

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

Cooking instructions:

Combine the meat and the onion, the red or green pepper, the milk, the salt, the pepper and the mustard.

Add the beaten eggs and the ground bread or crackers; blend well, shape into balls. Roll the balls in flour and stir fry in hot oil until browned.

Prepare the sauce: sauté the garlic, the onion and the finely chopped pepper in the hot lard, add the remaining ingredients and stir well.

Place the meatballs into the sauce and cook over low heat for about 30 minutes.

Breaded beef cutlet or Escalope (Bistec empanizado)

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

Cooking instructions:

Slice the meat into 6 steaks, pound them and make small cuts along the edge to avoid shrinking at the time of frying.

Marinate with the crushed garlic, the salt, the pepper, the onion and the Seville orange (or any other acid listed above), cover and refrigerate for an hour or overnight.

Before cooking, roll the steaks in egg and breadcrumbs or ground crackers until coated; fry in hot oil until golden brown.

Shredded jerked beef in tomato sauce (Aporreado de tasajo)

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

Cooking instructions:

Soak the jerked beef overnight.

The following morning, drain it and boil it in fresh water until tender; let it cool and remove the fat or the skin if it had any.

Pound and shred finely.

Heat the lard and sauté the onion, the garlic, the pepper and the tomatoes or, if you are using tomato sauce, stir it in at the end.

Add the jerked beef and the rest of the ingredients to this sauce.

Cook it over low heat for about ½ hour.
Serve with boiled white rice or boiled vegetables.

Ropa Vieja (Hash)

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

Cooking instructions:

Shred the meat. Slice the onion into thin rings and the pepper into julienne strips.

Crush the garlic and sauté in hot oil with the onion; add the pepper and sauté for a while. Add the meat and the remaining ingredients. Cook covered over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent from sticking.

You can add the sweet red pepper ground or as garnish.

Meat with potatoes (carne con papas)

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

Cooking instructions:

Chop the meat into 5 or 6 cm. cubes and brown it in hot oil or lard.

Add the salt, the paprika, the pepper and the chopped onion, stir and add the crushed cloves of garlic. After having added the spices cook for 2 or 3 minutes.

Toss in the seedless chopped pepper and tomatoes (or tomato sauce).

Cook for another 5 minutes. Add the wine and the water or stock and when the meat is kind of tender, add the potatoes, peeled and cubed, the raisins, the olives and the capers.

Keep cooking until both the meat and the potatoes are tender.

Ajiaco Criollo

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

Cooking instructions:

Chop the jerked beef in chunks and let it soak overnight. On the following morning drain it.

Put the soaked jerked beef and the half chicken chopped in half into a large pot. Let it boil for about an hour. Add the brisket, the boneless pork cut in pieces and the rib roast. Let it boil for approximately another hour. When the meats have been boiling for a while some of the fat must be taken out and the stock skimmed.

While the meats are being cooked make the sauce and peel the vegetables. When the meats are tender, add the vegetables in the order they appear on the ingredients list. At the same time add the sauce, so that everything is cooked at the same time. At the time of adding the ripe plantains also prepare the corn balls to put them in at the end.

Mix the ground corn with the salt, the milk and the lard in which two cloves of garlic have been sautéed. Spoon this batter out. Drop the balls over the vegetables in the stock. Cover and let it simmer for approximately another hour. Don’t stir it until the corn balls are thoroughly cooked.

To thicken the soup, mash two or three chunks of vegetables in some of the stock.