Ropa vieja

Ingredients

• Beef flank1.2 kg
• Onions — thinly sliced2
• Sweet peppers — in strips3
• Garlic6 clove
• Tinned tomatoes400 g
• Green olives100 g
• Capers2 tbsp
• Ground cumin2 tsp
• Dried oregano1 tbsp
• Dry white wine150 ml
• Olive oil60 ml
• Cooked rice600 g

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Boil the beef whole in salted water with an onion for an hour and a half, until it pulls apart. Keep the broth.

   95 min

2. 2

   Cool it and pull it apart along the grain into thin strands by hand.

   15 min

3. 3

   Sweat the onion and peppers in the olive oil for twenty minutes to complete softness, then add the garlic, cumin and oregano for a minute.

   22 min

4. 4

   Pour in the wine, reduce it by half, add the tomatoes and a cup of the broth. Simmer ten minutes.

   14 min

5. 5

   Return the meat, add the olives and capers and cook another twenty minutes over a low flame. Serve with rice and fried plantain.

   22 min

About the dish

The name means old clothes: meat pulled into strands really does look like frayed cloth. It is pulled by hand along the grain rather than cut with a knife.

The beef is first boiled whole for an hour and a half and only then stewed, already shredded. The reverse does not work: cut raw, it tightens and turns tough.

The sofrito here is long: onion and pepper sweat for twenty minutes to complete softness before anything else joins them. That is the common principle of Caribbean cooking.

Worth knowing

• — Flank or brisket beats a prime cut: fibrous pieces pull into strands, while tender ones simply crumble.
• — Salt at the end and after tasting: the olives and capers are already salty.
• — Ropa vieja is better the next day. Overnight the meat drinks the sauce and softens further.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

620 kcal

Protein

46 g

Fat

26 g

Carbs

48 g

More from Cuba

• Moros y cristianos — Rice cooked in the liquid from black beans, which darkens it and gives it all their flavour.