CrackerCoast Chronicle - Ropa Vieja (old clothes)

The origin of ropa vieja is from the Canary Islands (Spain), which were the last place ships from Spain would stop on the way to the Americas. They were also the first place that Spanish ships coming from the Americas would stop en route back to Spain. Due to this, Canarian culture is very similar to the Caribbean as well as Spain. The Canarian Spanish dialect of Spanish spoken there is very similar to the Caribbean and sounds extremely close to the Cuban dialect, due to heavy and continuous immigration to Cuba. This is how ropa vieja arrived in the island; with the Canarian immigrants. Some versions in the Canary Islands contain beef or chicken or pork, or a combination of any of the three. The dish is a national feature of Cuba, Ropa Vieja literally means old cloths. the name is apt because the meat , having been used first to make a broth is as it were "second hand" and the meat has been shredded resembling ragged clothes. There are many theories as to how the dish was named. One of the more popular ones is a story about a man whose family was coming to his home for dinner. Being very poor, the man could not buy them enough food when they came. To remedy his situation, he went to his closet, gathered some old clothes (ropa vieja) and imbued them with his love. When he cooked the clothes, his love for his family turned them into a wonderful beef stew.
You begin the recipe by making the broth , I use a pressure cooker using a regular pot will require significantly longer cooking time to tenderize the brisket(2-3 hrs) and will necessitate adding water to keep from boiling dry. Follow all manufacture warnings and recomendations when using a pressure cooker.

Pressure cooking is a method of cooking in a sealed vessel that does not permit air or liquids to escape below a preset pressure. Because the boiling point of water increases as the pressure increases, the pressure built up inside the cooker allows the liquid in the pot to rise to a higher temperature before boiling.

Pressure is created at the beginning with boiling liquid, such as water, inside the closed pressure cooker and the trapped steam increases the internal pressure and temperature, which is maintained throughout cooking time.
Pressure cookers may be referred to by several other names. An early pressure cooker, called a steam digester, was invented by Denis Papin, a French physicist, in 1679.

To Prepare the broth you will need

6 lb beef brisket
1/2 cup fresh parsley
3 bay leaves
3 lb yellow (Spanish) onions
2 lb carrots
3 cloves Garlic
1 tbs sea salt
1 tbs whole peppercorns

Place Meat in a large pressure cooker fat side down add onions, carrots, garlic, parsley, salt, bay leaves and peppercorns. sat aside onions and carrots that may not fit. add water to cover not exceeding the max line on your Pressure cooker. bring to a boil and seal lid. when the regulator weight whistles reduce heat to med and continue cooking for 45 minutes.

6 green bell peppers
2 yellow bell peppers (optional)
2 cloves garlic
1 tbs sea salt
1 tbs black pepper
2 tbs oregano
2 tbs sweet paprika (Hungarian is best)
1 tbs Annotto
1 tbs cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
2 cups dry white wine or dry sherry
32 oz tomato paste
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
4 tbs brown sugar or 4 oz of Malta
1 8oz jar of piquillo or pimiento peppers

While the meat broth is cooking remove skins from bell peppers, I use a torch (see tomato video), you can also cut them in half and place under a hot broiler until the skin blisters. If you do not perform this step the skins will form unattractive rolls in the final dish. Rinse and cut into thin strips.Measure and combine dry seasoning. Remove meat Broth from heat and let cool to open Pressure cooker, I place it in a sink of cool water to speed the process, do not remove petcock till cool otherwise you may have a mess and potential burn from spewing broth.

Open the lid and separate meat and solids from broth, pick out bay leaves and set meat aside to cool in a large cake pan. Set aside other solids in a bowl for later. Originally the broth was used to make a separate dish or soup but I concentrate it by reducing in an open pan. Leave about an inch of broth in the pot and add remaining uncooked onions carrots that would not fit in step one add prepared bell peppers white wine and dry seasonings replace lid and bring to pressure again for about 20 minutes while you shred the beef and reduce the rest of the stock. Continue reducing broth till it caramelizes (turns brown) and the water is minimal, skim off excess fat from reduced broth and discard fat at this stage.

Turn off heat on your reduction while you shred the beef, which should be cool enough to handle now. Scrape off any remaining fat then using two good strong forks, hold the brisket with one while you comb out the strands of meat with the other until the entire piece is shredded completely.

Remove the second boil with peppers and seasonings from the heat and let cool to open
while you turn the heat back on your reduction and add tomato paste vinegar and sugar. Bring to a boil and continue to reduce the liquid by evaporation keep boiling out the liquid but be careful not to burn now that you have sugar in the mix,
Open pressure cooker and add that liquid broth to the reduction as well.
Mash remaining solids from first boil and second to a paste, recombine with the reduced broth and pour over shredded beef. mix thoroughly and garnish with piquillo peppers.

Serve over a bed of Rice, My favorite is Jasmine, cooked with several cloves of Garlic. As with all good dishes seasoning amounts are variable to taste you may note by the photos , The annotto and paprika are important for color as well as flavor. be careful to no use Hot paprika. I use quite a bit more garlic than listed and rarely measure other ingredients. listed is close estimates feel free to use your own intuition. This recipe makes enough to serve 12-15 .

5 Comments

TailTeaser - 02-12-2011, 09:38 AM

WOW! That looks delicious.

MON CINIKA - 02-12-2011, 10:58 AM

Who has time to do all of that, just let us know when you will be cooking that wonderful looking meal again and we will all just come to your house
It does sound awful yummy...

ROOT - 02-12-2011, 12:51 PM

It takes nearly 5 hours of constant attention But its everyones favorite including me, I swear the little suckers didn't leave me a bite for leftovers after they all took a little for later. I need a bigger pressure cooker.

palmerbound2005 - 02-26-2011, 05:12 PM

Thanks for sharing this. We love Ropa Vieja-we'll have to make it again soon.

Napmaster - 03-07-2011, 07:13 PM

A little late, but thank you, honey. We all love your cooking!

Ropa Vieja (old clothes)

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