International Recipes marga@lacabe.com

I first discovered Cuban cuisine as a new bride looking to broaden my culinary horizon. One of the first cookbooks I got from the library was The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Ancestors and one of the first recipes I cooked from that book was Ropa Vieja, a dish of shredded meat cooked with onions, green peppers and red wine. This is still one of my favorite dishes ever (and that version is spectacular) and it was enough to convince me that Cuba cuisine was worth exploring. Alas, once I started exploring it I realized that it wasn't very different from the Argentinian cuisine I grew up eating - though with a greater emphasis on green bell peppers that I had at home. I was quite glad to be able to revisit Cuba cuisine for this project. The dishes I made all had familiar flavors, but they were very good and homey. The meat stew, in particular, was very similar to my recipe for meat stew, but the small variations transported it from good to extraordinary. These are the dishes I cooked: Albóndigas Cuban Meatballs Frijóles Negros Rápidos Black beans Carne con Papas An amazing beef and potato stew Fricasé de Pollo A stewed chicken dish with similar flavors to the beef stew. Flan de Queso Cream cheese flan These are a couple of other Cuban recipes I've cooked and enjoyed before: Ropa Vieja Shredded beef in a wine tomato sauce Vaca Frita Marinated pan-fried flank steak