Ropa Vieja (literally, “old clothing”) is an old Cuban recipe used to spruce up leftover meat. I got the recipe from the Frugal Gourmet on our Immigrant Ancestors many years ago, and it has always been one of our favorites. The recipe itself is pretty simple, requiring the cooked meat to simmer with chopped onions, garlic and green peppers in tomato sauce and wine. The only spices are salt and bay leaves. But it’s unbelievably delicious.
The dish is quite laborious, however, as you first have cook the meat (unless you have tons of leftover roast around) and then shred it. It shreds easily but it takes quite a long time to do it. Stopping yourself from eating the meat while you shred it is also quite a task.
I usually serve Ropa Vieja with rice, but this time I served it with quinoa. I wanted to try it. We weren’t too impressed. The package instructions – cook it in a rice cooker with twice as much water as quinoa – made for a soupy mess. next time I wouldn’t use more than 1 1/2 xs water. I don’t think we liked the slightly nutty/bitter taste of the quinoa, though it did grow on us. Perhaps it will be better with other types of sauces. I still have some more, so I’ll probably make it again.
Cuban ropa vieja is a great sauce/base to make Sausage, Peppers & Onions. Give it a try! Great flavor!