CABANA BOY COOKS: How About Some Cuban Food?

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.

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About the Blog

Cabana Boy Cooks is a food blog that gives a little insight and help on Tuesdays. That is followed by recipes on Wednesdays and Thursdays each week. This blog is for all who enjoy cooking but is geared towards new & inexperienced cooks.

This food blog came about because I wrote a cookbook for new and inexperienced individuals wishing to learn their way around the kitchen. It is an extension of that cookbook and offers more than 600 recipes here. The cookbook has an additional 125 recipes plus helpful instruction and advise..

I try to offer recipes that cover all aspects of cooking. You'll see on the tabs above that the recipes are broke into categories. Gluten-Free and Vegetarian recipes are marked behind them with a (GF) or (V) sign. Many of the other recipes can be adopted to meet gluten-free or vegetarian by making minor changes.

Please, don't hesitate to contact me through the comments section of the blog with questions or concerns.

Remember to share my link with family, friends and co-workers.

Thank you for following my food blog and "Happy Cooking."

My Cookbook

More Than Your First Cookbook

Every year, thousands of young people graduate high school or college and find themselves on their own for the first time. Amid all the excitement and freedom that comes with this fresh start, many of these newly independent people will find themselves out of their comfort zone when it comes to one critically important area--food.

This cookbook helps those people establish a new comfort zone in the "Kitchen" and learn to enjoy being creative in their culinary pursuit.

The cookbook draws on all the years of my life to collect the recipes, tips, anecdotes and life advice that will help everyone. From safety and sanitation to menu planning and budgeting, I walk new cooks through all the basics of food preparation. A great gift for children or grandchildren just beginning to cook for themselves and a useful reference for more experienced cooks, this cookbook offers readers 125 mouthwatering recipes to match all tastes and abilities. I believe that cooking should be fun and personal, so all the recipes leave room for experimentation. There are even tips on how to make a few of the dishes fit into a vegetarian diet.

Breakfast, soups, salads, sandwiches, entrees, sides and desserts are all covered, along with a few odds and ends. Whether you're looking for the right way to set the table for a formal dinner, you want to take your grilling to the next level or you just want to figure out how many teaspoons are in a tablespoon, The cookbook will help you find the answer.

GLUTEN-FREE Recipes and Information

A few years ago, my granddaughter discovered she has Celiac and needs to be Gluten-Free. I started doing a special week of Gluten-Free information and recipes on this blog then and they appear every four (4) weeks. So if you happen to be on a Gluten-Free diet or know someone that could this help, please check it out.

There is a recipe tab above that holds all the GF recipes (in alphabetical order). It also holds the information posts in the order they have been posted.

All Gluten-Free recipes have this (GF) mark behind the titles. There are many other recipes on this blog that are or can be easily adapted to be Gluten-Free. So you may want to check other recipes too.

I also try and mark VEGETARIAN recipes with a (V) behind the titles as well. I hope these features help many of you that want or need these options for your lifestyle.

About the Blog's Author

I spend over 40 years in the food industry doing everything from pot scrubber/dishwasher to managing around 250 employees. In 2009 I retired from my career to start a new adventure. That adventure was to write and publish a cookbook for new and inexperienced cooks. Many of my years in the industry involved working in "Higher Education." I saw a need for such a cookbook as I watched college students move on to a life on their own. So it has become a mission of mine to help anyone that wants to improve their cooking skills and learn to enjoy being in the kitchen.

In April of 2011 I started my food blog "Cabana Boy Cooks" as a continuation of the cookbook. The blog covers many areas and topics. It also offers at least two (2) recipes a week not found in the cookbook. There is now over 200 recipes for you on this food blog.

Once a month, I write a food column under "Cabana Boy Cooks" in the weekly newspaper, Nodaway News Leader in Maryville, MO that includes a recipe. Some of the recipes are from this food blog and others come from my cookbook "More Than Your First Cookbook"