Seasonal Pantry: Some Cuban home cooking

About 20 years ago, I was flying from Key West to Miami, where I would transfer to a flight home. We boarded, we sat, we left the plane, we boarded again and repeated this process another time or two before the small prop plane taxied to the runaway and took flight. Twenty minutes later, we landed at Miami International Airport only to learn that the flight to San Francisco had already departed. I was given two vouchers, one for a night in the airport hotel, another for food at any of the airport restaurants.

After walking through the airport for a very long time, I came upon a Cuban restaurant. Enticing aromas suggested this would be the best choice in the airport and I was right. Soon, I was enjoying delicious roasted pork, black beans, golden rice and steamed yucca.

This was my introduction to Cuban food.

Now we have a Cuban restaurant in Windsor, Rumba Cuban Cafe (8750 Old Redwood Highway), the Sebastopol Center for the Arts hosted a Cuban Film Festival last weekend and the American Embassy in Havana is open for the first time in decades.

It is time, I think, for some Cuban home cooking.

Several influences converge on the long thin island, which stretches from off the shore of Cancun eastward towards the tip of Haiti. Spanish settlers, Chinese laborers, African slaves and the native Siboneyes have all left their fingerprints on the cuisine of the island.

Much of what I understand about Cuban cooking comes from “A Taste of Old Cuba” by Maria Josefa Lluria de O’Higgins (Harper Collins, 1994), which explores life before the revolution, when the author was growing up in the 1920s and 1930s, often with servants and always with at least one cook. The book is full of delicious tales of wood-burning ovens, picadillo, ropa vieja (a beef hash), garlic soups, chorizo, green coconuts, dried shrimp, tubers such as yucca and malanga, plantains, cocktails and so much more.

Sauces are always a good place to start when getting to know a cuisine, as they give unique regional flavor to the basic ingredients -- meats, seafood, vegetables -- that we all share. These two sauces, along with a simple summer salad, are adapted from the book.

__

Mojo is the ubiquitous sauce of Cuba, utterly essential to the cuisine. It is used as a marinade for all types of meats and vegetables and some seafood. It should be freshly made, though, so feel free to cut the recipe in half if you don’t think you’ll use the full amount.

Mojo Criollo Cuban Garlic Sauce

Makes 2 cups

10 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 cup sour orange juice (see Note below)

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

Put the garlic into a suribachi or large mortar, add the salt and use a wooden pestle to crush the garlic into a smooth paste. Stir in the orange juice.

Pour the olive oil into a small saucepan set over medium heat and when it is quite hot, carefully whisk in the garlic mixture. Remove from the heat, let cool slightly and use right away, as a marinade for meats and vegetables.

Note: If you don’t have sour oranges, you can use a mix of ½ cup sweet orange juice and ½ cup lime juice.

Suggested uses

Cut several medium zucchini in half lengthwise, put them into a freezer bag, pour in the mojo and seal the bag, pressing out the air as you do. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or as long as overnight before grilling.

Slice 2 eggplants into ¾-inch thick slices, put them into a freezer bag, pour in half the mojo, seal the bag and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and as long as overnight. Remove from the bag, pour off all the juices and rinse off the eggplant (this will remove any bitterness). Put the eggplant in a container that will hold the slices in a single layer, cover with the remaining mojo, turn and let rest for 30 minutes before grilling.

Put chicken thighs, lamb steaks, pork chops or skirt steak into a freezer bag, add the mojo, seal the bag and refrigerate for several hours before grilling.

___

Use this classic sauce with fish, shrimp, chicken and almost any meat, including meatballs. Spoon it over leftover fried fish, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, pasta, farro, quinoa, roasted potatoes, mashed yucca, croquettes and any grilled vegetable.

Salsa Española Spanish Sauce

1½ cups extra virgin olive oil, preferably from Spanish olives

2 large onions, peeled and cut into small dice

1 medium green bell pepper (see Note below)

6 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

½ cup fresh tomato concasse (simply peeled, seeded and minced tomatoes)

½ cup dry white wine

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon kosher salt

- Black pepper in a mill

¼ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley

Pour the olive oil into a large skillet set over medium-low heat. Add the onions and pepper and cook gently until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 2 minutes more.

Stir in the tomato concasse, wine, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Bring to a gentle boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in the parsley.

Note: I typically use a large poblano pepper in place of the bell pepper called for in this recipe, as the skin of bell peppers imparts an aggressive flavor I find quite unpleasant. If I do use a bell, I sear the skin and peel it off first.

___

Now that we have local okra at our farmers markets, it is easy to make friends with this much aligned vegetable, originally from Africa. This simple salad is a great place to start.

Okra Salad

2 pounds small, fresh okra, washed

1 medium or 2 small red onions, peeled and shaved paper thin

4 teaspoons white wine vinegar

½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste

- Black pepper in a mill

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, preferably from Spanish varietals

Pour about 1 inch of water into a large saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the okra, cover and cook until it is almost but not quite tender and still bright green, about 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and use a slotted spoon to transfer the okra to a dry tea towel to drain and cool.

When the okra is cool enough to handle, trim off the stems and cut each in half lengthwise. Transfer to a salad bowl, add half the onion and toss gently.

Put the vinegar into a small bowl, add the salt and pepper, whisk in the olive oil and pour the dressing over the vegetables. Scatter the remaining onion over the salad, cover and chill thoroughly.

To serve, sprinkle with salt, add several turns of black pepper and enjoy right away.

Michele Anna Jordan has written 24 books to date, including the new “Good Cook’s” series. Email Jordan at michele@saladdresser.com. You’ll find her blog, “Eat This Now,” at pantry.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.