Ropa Vieja aka "Old Clothes"

Hello, we meet again my pretties… 

These recipes are from one of my treasured cook books, “Daisy Cooks!” by Daisy Martinez.

So this is technically going to be a two-part recipe because in order to get one of the ingredients you must prepare for another. So let’s get this going because you might want to prepare this ahead of time to cut down on kitchen time. Ropa Vieja is going to take at least 3 hours in the kitchen but it’s sooooooooooooo worth it you’ll thank yourself at the first magically wonderful taste.

Part 1: SOFRITO!

You are going to need ½ cup of Sofrito when making Ropa Vieja, so you might as well make a batch ahead of time and freeze it in baggies containing a ½ cup each. Any recipe you currently already have can be dressed up with latin flavor by simply adding some sofrito, ie roasts, chicken, even rice! Also if you decide to go out and buy one of Daisy Martinez’s books you’ll always need it on hand. If you think you might be a little weary you can always cut the recipe in half or a fourth to just try it out…. but don’t whine when you wish you’d made more... This recipe makes about 4 cups.

You’ll need:

1 Food Processor

2 medium Spanish Onions (white works great) cut into large chunks

3 to 4 Italian frying peppers or Cubanelles

16 to 20 cloves of Garlic

1 large bunch of Cilantro

4 leaves of Culantro

*(this stuff is like “Cilantro x 10” , if you can’t find it at your farmer’s market, you can substitute this for another Whole bunch of Cilantro)

7 to 10 Ajices Dulces (optional)

*(aka “Cachucha” aka “Ajicitos” … these are sweet semi-spicy peppers. But don’t mistake them for scotch bonnet or habanero peppers ... they look really similar, and even come in the same color ranges so be careful and make sure you’re picking up the right ones because there is a HUGE heat difference between the two. If you mistake them you may be in for a rocket ride to the moon)

3 to 4 ripe plum tomatoes, cored and cut into chunks

1 large red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and cut into large chunks

Chop all the larger stuff into chunks and then process everything in the food processor until you get it smooth. Like mentioned before, this will give you 8 servings storing ½ cup in each small freezer bag. You can store it for up to 3 days in your frig, or in your freezer until you need it. Note that if you decide not to freeze it right away, it will smell up your frig (if you’re finicky like that, just go ahead and freeze it)

Part 2: ROPA VIEJA

So you know when you go to a Latin restaurant and ask for a shredded steak taco… this is pretty much it but with a little extra veggies in it. You can serve this with rice or on tacos, it would even taste great on nachos… or cold out of the pan at 3 am… it is beefy divinity. Cook time is at least 3 hours so make sure you’re prepared to wait because if you skip lunch thinking you can wait your hungry little stomach will hate you for it...

Also this is Daisy’s Cuban version, traditionally it’s made with Flank steak but she prefers the chuck roast. Either way it’s amazing. Makes 6 Servings.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 large or 7QT Dutch Oven or Oven proof dish with lid

1 (2 ¼ or 2 ½ lb) Chuck Roast, or 2 (1 ¼ lb) Flank Steaks

3 medium Carrots, trimmed and cut into ¼ inch dice

1 cup fresh or frozen Peas

*(I already had chopped frozen mixed vegetables from the farmer’s market on hand --corn, baby limas, cut green beans, carrots, and peas---so this is what I used instead of the carrots and peas separately. 3 medium carrots is about 12 oz so that’s 1 ½ cups, adding the 1 cup of peas meant that my total of chopped frozen veggies to add was 2 ½ cups)*

4 medium or 2 large Celery stalks, with leaves, peeled, cut into ¼ inch diced (i only used half this)

1 small Onion

*(The original recipe simply tells you to liberally season your meat with salt, pepper, and onion powder. Just to complicate things… of course, I hate using onion powder… so in its placed I used a small white onion. This will be explained later.)*

2 (8oz) cans Spanish-style Tomato Sauce

½ cup Sofrito

3 Tbsp Alcaparrado or chopped Pimento-stuffed Olives

*(Alcaparrado is going to be equal parts chopped pimento olives and capers)

2 Bay Leaves

¼ tsp ground Cumin

1 ½ cup Water

3 tbsp Canola Oil + Olive Oil as needed

Black Pepper and Kosher Salt as needed/ to taste

Let’s Begin!!!!

So…. I’ve made this twice using the Chuck roast: A) because 2lbs of chuck roast is cheaper, and B) because I have not been left wanting so far! Mmm

Buuuut anyway… before you start chopping up all your veggies here's a trick! Not sure if you've ever noticed but celery can be stringy.... To avoid this all you have to do is take a potato peeler to it and peel the outer layer off. Now chop away my friends... chop away.
 

Next, take your chuck roast or flank steak and pound it really well with a mallet to tenderize it. Now season all sides liberally with salt and pepper. So here’s one part where I deviated from the recipe again. The first time I tried the onion powder that she called for. Although it was good… I just like the fresh stuff better. I feel like it lends a more natural flavor and when do you go wrong with onions anyway?… In my opinion, never. These precious jewels flavor the world! 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

So first I put in my diced onion until it was clear and fragrant, and then I took them out and set them aside so that when the meat was browning, the onions wouldn’t burn in the high heat. Figured I’d do that first because any extra flavor cooked in is good… but whatever.

Heat the canola oil until rippling (I just used veg oil because it’s what I had on hand, but canola oil is going to give you a better brown on your meat so by all means if you have it, use it). Add in your meat and get a good sear/brown on all sides.

Drain or spoon off most of the fat from the pan. Stir in your sofrito, 2 tsp of salt, cumin, and bring it to a boil. You may have to add a little oil to get it creamy. Stir in the tomato sauce, water, alcaparrado, and bay leaves. Bring this to a boil again, then cover it with the lid, and pop it into the oven for about 2 ½ hours or until the meat pulls apart easily with a fork. I am always afraid of burning so if you’re like me you’ll check on it. Being a little obsessive, I checked on it after the first hour. That really wasn't necessary so I decided to check it again after the second. I’m glad that I did because the pan did look a little dry so at this point I added a little water.

And now for another variation from the original recipe … Her version tells you to add the celery after it's come out of the oven while it simmers on the stove top for another 10 minutes. I didn’t like idea of possibly undercooked celery because although I love celery as a seasoning, I DO NOT like crunching on it in a dish unless its finely chopped in a macaroni salad or something... so if you want the original version look below.

My way:  At the 2 hour mark I dumped in my celery and only a little over half of what she called for! (above calls for : 4 celery stalks, so technically I only used a little over 2 large).… and shoved it back into the oven for the remaining half hour. The meat was pretty soft at this point with a “fork check” but I decided what the heck, a little extra cook time couldn’t hurt, plus it gave the celery time to soften.

After 2 ½ hours take your pot out of the oven and let it sit until it’s cool enough to handle, which for me wasn’t too long. When you’re ready, grab two forks and begin pulling apart your meat; it should be tender and easy to pull apart. If you’re using the chuck roast make sure to pull out the center most clump of fat.

This is when I put the pot back on the stove and dumped in my 2 ½ cups of frozen mixed veggies and simmered for another 10 minutes or until they were soft.

If you want do it the Daisy way: after the 2 ½ hours in the oven and shredding your meat, this is when you’d add in your chopped celery along with the carrots and that only gets cooked for 10 minutes. After this you add in your peas and cook for a few minutes more.

Once it was finally all done, I found some tortillas and sour cream. I know this version is not as traditional as it could have been but anyway here’s my end result, decide for yourself, I’m sure it’s good many ways.  SO EAT UP!