Ropa Vieja (Old Clothes) - Shredded beef stew
This is a traditional Cuban beef dish much like a sort of stew.
Difficulty: Easy
Time: at least an hour 2 -3 for best results
Ingredients:
- 2 - 3 pounds of beef such as pot roast or skirt or flank steak (I've even used london broil)
- Kosher alt
- Fresh milled black pepper
- Olive Oil
- Water
- 1 Large Spanish or sweet onion chopped
- 4 - 6 cloves of garlic crushed
- 1 green bell pepper chopped
- 1 lemon zested and juiced
- 1 cup of white wine ( please be sure it's drinkable)
- 2 - 3 plum tomatoes diced
- Hot sauce (like Franks or Crystal)
- Mojo sauce (goya is fine and found at most groceries)
- 2 bay leaves
- chipotle chili powder ( pinch to a teaspoon more if you like it hot)
Directions
Rub the meat with kosher salt and cracked black peper to taste.
In a large pot brown the meat on all sides in a little bit of the olive oil.
(TIP: heat the pot until good and hot then add a little oil to cover the bottom right before you put the meat in the pot. room temp meat is best and cooks better. Don't move the meat once it's in the pot let it sear well.) About 5 10 minutes per side until it has a nice brown seared coating.
If you have not yet chopped up the vegetable now would be a good time to prep those while the meat is cooking.
Once the meat has cooked on both sides or all sides if it's a larger pot roast remove it from the pot for the moment and deglaze the pot by pouring in about 1 cup of Mojo and 1 cup of white wine... PLEASE do NOT use cooking wine... IF YOU CAN'T DRINK IT DO NOT COOK WITH IT!
Stir the mixture around getting the juices and dark bits from the bottom of the pot all mixed in. After about 2 - 3 minutes of cooking the liquid replace the meat into the pot... if the liquid begins to reduce too quickly add a cup of water at this time you should also add some hot sauce as much as you like to taste also add in the bay leaves. Reduce the heat and leave this to simmer.
In a separate frying pan heat the pan until hot then add a little olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the onions, green bell peppers and garlic stir fry them until the onions become translucent then add the tomatoes lemon juice and lemon zest ( lemon zest is the outer yellow coating of the lemon).
Combine all the vegetables into the pot with the meat adding water as needed to keep it from boiling away... you can keep adding about a cup or so of water as needed. At this point you could throw in some chipotle chili pepper as much as you like depending on your tolerance to hot pepper.
Cover this mixture and allow to simmer for at least and hour but more time is better 2 hours is great.
Every now and then while you are checking to keep the pot with about a cup of liquid in it rip the meat apart with a pair of forks. just rip and tear at it and it should shred this will become easier the longer the meat cooks.
This goes well with Spanish rice or I like to make lime cilantro rice and some guacamole. I'll post those recipes another time.
I'd love to hear how others make Ropa Vieja - mine isn't exactly "traditional" it's just how I make it and no one has ever complained :)
This goes very well with a nice Spanish red wine, I suggest one of the following... If you're on a budget Astica Malbec is a fantastic buy! Astica runs about $5 a bottle and is fantastic every day wine
If you don't mind paying a little bit more Mano a Mano is a great red for about $10 a bottle
If you don't mind spending a bit more you can look for a Rioja that's been picked by Bodegas you almost can't ever go wrong with a Rioja!
Cheers! and please let me know how yours turns out!
E
Edward O'Rourke IV
12 Comments
The meat gets to a point where you don't really need to chew it sort of melts ;)
I don't add the peas garnish but I guess it wouldn't hurt.
What a great idea to post "traditional" recipes - thanks edoriv!!
Veggies is where its at!
Hey you know AdGuy always gets the last word! ;)