Ropa Vieja

The weather in South Florida has been so gloomy these couple of days, so I longed for something warm, comforting... something to satisfy my soul. So I thought of Ropa Vieja.

Ropa Vieja, or translated literraly as "tattered clothes or rags", is a Latin American cuisine. It is named as such because the shredded beef resembles so much like the ragged edges of an old clothing.... as explained to me by my Hispanic friends.



This dish is very similar to some dishes that we have in the Philippines, that's why I've taken so much liking to it. It is actually nothing but beef stewed in a tomato-based sauce. What makes this different though, is that it requires a specific cut of meat – flank - which can be shredded in long pieces.

In my opinion, the real secret to this dish is in the length of time the meat is braised. Longer braising allows more time for the flavors to meld well together, resulting in a very flavorful, tender meat that just melts in your mouth! Yum!



Pictured here is my version of Ropa Vieja. It is my opinion that the best way to enjoy this dish is to have it with rice. Plain rice. A little maduros (or fried plantains) on the side completes the meal.

Then you will be a happy camper.


Ropa Vieja
Adapted from Cooking Light

Cooking spray
2 (1-pound) flank steaks, trimmed
3 cups thinly vertically sliced red onion
2 cups red bell pepper strips (about 2 peppers)
2 cups green bell pepper strips (about 2 peppers)
4 garlic cloves, minced
6 tablespoons thinly sliced pitted green olives
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 tablespoons sherry vinegar
3 cups fat-free, less-sodium beef broth
1 tablespoon no-salt-added tomato paste
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Preparation
Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add 1 steak to pan; cook 2 1/2 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove steak from pan. Repeat procedure with cooking spray and remaining steak.

Reduce heat to medium. Add onion, bell peppers, and garlic to pan; cook 7 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in olives and next 5 ingredients (through black pepper); cook 30 seconds or until fragrant. Stir in vinegar, scraping pan to loosen browned bits; cook for 2 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates. Stir in broth, tomato paste, and bay leaves. Add steaks; bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat, and cook 1 1/2 hours or until steaks are very tender. Discard bay leaves.

Remove steaks from pan; shred with two forks. Stir shredded beef and cilantro into pan.

Note: This dish is definitely better the next day. Left-over meat can also be eaten with tortilla or taco.

Involtini Of Beef

The South Beach Food and Wine Festival is going on right now even as I write this... and I couldn't go. I'm absolutely bummed out.

It is a 4-day festival taking place by the beach (U.S.'s Riviera, South Beach) which showcases the amazing talents of the world's most renowned wine makers, celebrated chefs and culinary personalities. It's the ultimate event to go for foodies and foodies at heart!

The truth is, it's not so much as I couldn't but that I didn't go - for valid reasons. The tickets for this event are a little expensive. With how the economy is going nowadays, it just doesn't seem right for me to be spending between $200-$400 (for the events I wanted to attend). Arrgghhh!!! I so wanted to go. A part of me is screaming and kicking like a child; but the wise part of me hushed the child down :oD While the experience and fun of meeting all those celebrity chefs whom I admire is arguably worth it, but fact remains - my going isn't a real need. It is just a want; something that I can do away with, or at least, put off for now. If there's any time to spend wisely, it is now. Besides, there's always next year, right?

This festival is definitely an item in my bucket list, so I have to go even for just once. I do hope things will work out for me next time. Till then, I am keeping my fingers crossed, and praying that the economy will take a better turn in the next months to come.

I don't know about you but good food always lifts me up. And since I needed cheering up, I thought that this dish, Involtini Of Beef (or beef roll-ups), would do the trick. It is pleasing to the eye and tastes fantastic! What's more, it is not at all complicated to do. I actually find this quicker to do than, say, lasagna.

If you've been visiting this blog often, you'd notice that my recipes are simple and easy to do. So this dish is right up my alley. Much as I'd like to cook, but I don't want to be spending too much time in the kitchen and not have enough time left to spend with my loved ones. The latter is important too, you know.

I made this for Mr. J for his birthday and he totally liked it. This dish may be simple, but it obviously requires some effort (and love) and the end product is special -- very elegant.

So go ahead and try this dish. As Ingrid Hoffman says, "If I can do it, you can do it!".

I am sharing this dish to Lasang Pinoy Sundays (La.Pi.S): EATS A WRAP!. Lasang Pinoy is a weekly food photography meme, hosted by SpiCes.




Involtini Of Beef
(Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis)

1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cups carrots, julienned (cut into thin strips)
1/2 cup red or yellow bell pepper (cut into thin strips)
1/2 cup zucchini (cut into thin strips)
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 (3 to 4-ounces each) beef scaloppini (from London Broil or Top Sirloin)
All-purpose flour, for dredging
1/2 cup dry white wine*
1 bay leaf
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup frozen peas
1-ounce thinly sliced prosciutto, coarsely chopped

Directions
1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Add the veggies, onion, and garlic and saute until the veggies are tender, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.
4. Stir in the Parmesan.
5. Season beef with salt and pepper.
6. Using 2 tablespoons for each, divide the veggie mixture among the beef slices. 6. Roll up the beef slices to enclose the filling, tucking in the ends. Secure the rolls with toothpicks.
7. Heat the remaining oil and the remaining tablespoon of butter in the same large frying pan over medium-high heat.
8. Dredge the beef rolls in flour to coat lightly.
9. Add the beef rolls and cook until brown on all sides, about 8 minutes.
10. Add the wine and stir to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the skillet.
11. Add the tomatoes with their juices and the bay leaf. Cover and simmer until the beef is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer the beef rolls to a platter.
12. Remove the toothpicks, then cover the beef rolls with foil to keep warm.
13. Add the peas and prosciutto to the sauce in the skillet and stir until the peas are heated through and the sauce reduces slightly, about 5 minutes.
14. Season the sauce, to taste, with salt and pepper.
15. Drizzle the sauce over the beef rolls and serve.

NOTE*: You may substitute wine with chicken broth, if preferred. As for the veggies, I didn't have zucchini on hand, so I just used carrots and green bell pepper and adjusted the amount accordingly .

Grilled Rib-Eye & July 4th

July 4th, a reminder of America's independence and freedom as a nation and as a people. It is a reminder that FREEDOM is certainly not FREE. Great men who went before paid a great price so that Americans can enjoy the kind of liberty that they have today. So, I pay homage to the great leaders such as Thomas Jefferson, and all those brave men and women who fought for their vision of "a land for the free" to come into a reality. As well, I'd like to thank all those soldiers who are in the battlefront defending this country and the principles it stands for. Thank you so much for putting your lives on the line. God bless you, God bless America!

With that said, I am also thankful that July 4th is a non-working holiday. It fell on a Friday so we have a 3-day weekend. Yipee!! But my hubby and I both have no family in Florida, our best friends are in South Africa (as missionaries), and gas is so crazy expensive to drive anywhere --- so we had nowhere to go!! ... LOL. Actually, that's not entirely true. We do have other friends, but we just chose to stay in the house. We had a truly lazy day; we slept in and just watched pay per view movies. I do thank God that after all these years, we still find it a pleasure to hang out with each other.

But in a true July 4th tradition, we have to fire up the grill, right? So we did that in the afternoon. For our July 4th celebration, we choose to grill rib-eyes (hubby's fave cut of meat) and corn on the cob. I made coleslaw salad and had Bush's grilling beans. We also had garlic bread. Quite a spread for just the two of us, huh?

It's such a pleasure to collaborate with Mr. J. He likes mixing up spices, and that's just what he did for the steak. And after surveying what we have in the fridge and pantry, he also came up with a steak sauce - a mixture of horseradish, mayo and pineapple... Sounds weird huh? But it came out good. I'll tell you more about it as I explain to you how he made it.

As for me, we had coleslaw mix in the bag, so I decided to make a the coleslaw salad- KFC style. I've always liked KFC's coleslaw, and so, I tried to imitate that - which I think I did a good job of. It tasted yummy. But hey, you might say I'm biased because I made it. Well, you just gotta try it yourself, won't you now? For the beans... we'll we just had to try this new product. But since it's from the can, we didn't do a whole lot except added sauteed onions and a bit more seasoning to it.

It was a nice celebration. It was like going out to eat, except that we did not spend a lot. Plus, we have leftovers in the fridge, so I don't have to cook anything for tonight. That's the way I like it! :o)

Recipes will have to follow when I get it from Mr. J..as for now, hope you had a good July 4th celebration as well.

Pinoy Bistek (Filipino-Style Beefsteak)

Filipinos in general, like the rest of the Asian countries, are not heavy meat eaters. Most of our dishes are prepared with lots of vegetables or noodles in them. Or, when we eat meat, we eat a matchbox-sized piece with lots of rice. (Yes, we love rice. We eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and yet, most Filipinos are petite. So rice really cannot make one fat!)

I can only attribute the way we eat to the Philippines being a third world country, that is, poor. Majority of the people cannot afford to have meat dishes on a daily basis. For a famiy of seven (the average size of a Filipino family), the meals can become real costly. Thus rice, vegetables and noodles are thrown in to extend the dishes and make a big meal out of a little piece of meat.

As for my family, this dish was one of our Sunday lunch tradition. This happens to be one of my Dad's favorite, so my Mom prepares this for him. This is called "bistek", or the Filipino-style beef steak. It is not like the steak that you would think it to be here in the U.S. They're smaller pieces of beef sliced thinly and marinated in "kalamansi" (key lime), soysauce, garlic, salt and pepper. Some say, "bistek or bistec" refers to the Hispanic style of cooking a dish with a sauce. This is most probably true, considering that our culture is heavily Hispanic-influenced.

I remember hating this dish when I was younger because I didn't like the pieces of the meat that get stuck in between my teeth. I would be crying by the end of our dinner. But thankfully, this is not the case anymore. In fact, this has become one of my favorite Filipino comfort food.

Now that my Mom has passed on to be with the Lord, this dish brings back loving memories of her and my family as I was growing up.




Pinoy Bistek
1 lb. beef (round, sirloin or tenderloin), sliced 1/4-inch thick
6 tbsp. of kalamansi (key lime) juice
1/2 c. dark soy sauce
3 tsp. garlic, minced
black pepper, freshly ground
2 large onions, sliced into rings (I used red onions)
2 tbsp vegetable cooking oil, or more if needed
flour, for dredging

1. Slice the beef. Take a piece of plastic wrap and cover the meat. Pound the meat mallet or a heavy skillet. Do this carefully so as not to tear the meat. (This is to ensure that the meat would be tender, but you can skip this step).

2. In a bowl, mix the next 4 ingredients (from the kalamansi juice thru pepper). Mix well and let the meat marinate in it for at least 30 minutes. (My opinion, the longer the marinating time, the better the meat tastes)

3. When ready, bring a heavy skillet up to temperature. Add the vegetable oil. Fry the onions lightly, just until tender. Remove from skillet and keep warm.

4. Take the meat out but reserve the marinade. Dredge the meat lightly with flour, carefully shaking off the excess.

5. Add oil to skillet and heat until smoking. Pan-fry the meat until brown (in batches if you have to). When the beef is done, add the marinade into to the skillet and let it boil for a minute or two. Then add the beef back into the skillet. Mix until all pieces are coated well with the sauce. Add the fried onions. Simmer for another minute or two.

6. Serve immediately with white rice. Enjoy.