Tuesday, April 23, 2013

How About Some Cuban Food?

I thought that since last week's blog was Italian in nature, we covered some bread baking.  Next week will be Mexican as I offer a couple of recipes for Cino de Mayo celebrations.  This week should be ethnic too.  I have two Cuban recipes that really make a meal for you.

A little bit of info on Cuban cuisine.  Cuba was the first and last Spanish colony in the New World.  There is a huge Spanish influence on the food.  However, because of slavery there is also an African and Caribbean influence as all the islands and the area influenced each other.

The revolution led by Castro brought new influences because the USA cut off all trade with Cuba.  Castro's alliance with Russia and other countries created some change.  Wheat, pasta and yogurt became big in Cuba.  Also, pizza rose to be quite popular.

There is not much American influence in Cuban cuisine.  However, Cuban immigrants to Miami have seen their food influenced by American cuisine.

In Cuba, pork has always been king.  There is not a lot of beef eaten there but chicken consumption has increased since the revolution.  Beans and rice are also very popular foods.

Practicing cart pushing for shopping  trip
This week's recipes include two of those ingredients, pork and beans.  Tomorrow's recipe is for the famous "Cuban Sandwich" that uses pork in two forms.  It calls for both sliced cooked pork and sliced ham.  Thursday's recipe is for "Cuban Black Beans" although red beans are just as favored in the country, if not more.

One more bit of information about Cuban food.  They like "Spicy" food as does the whole Caribbean area.  The  yellow mustard provides the heat (although moderate) on the sandwich because they like to put it on heavy.  In the bean dish the heat comes from the Jalapeno peppers.  Remember that, whatever your heat desire, you can always adjust the spice to meet your needs.  Enjoy trying these two dishes and "Happy Cooking."

I've added a photo of my assistant practicing pushing a cart.  She is excited to go food shopping so we can test more recipes.  Some days I have a hard time keeping up with her.  I'm going to need to get in better shape, I guess.

No comments:

Post a Comment