Ropa Vieja

Today we'll be eating old clothes...hahaha....actually, joke aside, that's the name of the dish we'll be presenting: ropa vieja, or old clothes. A Cuban specialty, ropa vieja is just shredded flank steak meat with seasoning and tomato sauce. Its origins date back to the Canary Islands in Spain and there's even a clothing line named after it. I can guarantee you this dish does not taste like old clothes though.


Ingredients:

• 1 lb of flank steak
• 1 whole bell pepper
• 1 whole onion
• 3 pieces of garlic teeth
• 1 can of tomate sauce
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 tablespoon complete seasoning
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Preparation:

• Place the meat into a pressure cooker and fill with water until the meat is covered fully.
• Add a teaspoon of salt and let it simmer for 20 minutes.
• Cut the bell pepper, onion and garlic into small pieces.
• In a frying pan, add the olive oil and the cut vegetables and let it cook on moderate heat.
• Once the beef is tender, let it cool for a while and when chill, start pulling into shreds.
• Mix the shredded meat and the cooked vegetables together in a skillet.
• At this time also add the complete seasoning, cumin, lemon juice and tomato sauce and cook on slow heat for 10 minutes.

Finally, we have ropa vieja, served with white rice and tostones(fried green plantains):