The crispy, juicy Cuban beef of my family is my favorite meal in the week of the week
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Why does it work
- The beef shoulder (chuck) has more fat and binding tissue as a flank (the traditional cut), so that it remains juicy, while it still crunches in the pan.
- Simmer the beef gently in salted water, with the laurel leaves make it tender and at the same time concentrate its natural strong taste.
- Cooking the onions separately builds up sweetness and depth in the dish without softening the risk of alleviating the crispy edges of the beef, which are accompanied by cooking allia and meat together.
- Frying the beef in small batches prevents it from being pushed and it makes it brown and crispy instead of damping.
Vaca frita or what I like to call Old clothes’S Crispy Cousin is proof that sometimes the simplest list of ingredients can unlock the deepest taste and the best texture. The name literally translates to “fried cow”, and the recipe is almost as simple as that. Cooked beef, a racket or something blunt, with which you smash it, a short marinade, and a quick sear in hot oil is everything it takes to convert a modest cut into crispy, juicy, delicate, chopped beef pieces.
Serious food / Lorena Masso
The best cut of beef for Vaca frita
Most Vaca Frita recipes tell them that they should reach for flank steak, a slim cut with long fibers that are shredded relatively quickly. It is traditional and for a good reason: Flank’s structure makes it easy to pull yourself apart in uniform strands, and its mild taste means that it takes on a wonderfully marinade and always provides a predictable, without foot Vaka-frita. But after I had talked to the Cuban butcher in my grocery and with some of my Cuban family members, I decided to try Falda de Res, which are sold in most American supermarkets as beef chuck-chuck roast or shoulder roast. The Council was unanimous: the flank becomes tender earlier, but the additional time that is needed to simmer the shoulder cut, reward her patience with a deeper taste and a better balance between fat, moisture and beef. And if you cook a dish as easily as Vaca Frita, in which the beef is both the star and the stage, every ounce of taste is important.
Let simmer in clear water, not in broth
This is also the reason why I can simmer my beef in simple water with just a few laurel leaves and a hit made of salt and not in a rich broth. It may sound contrary – you would think, broth the taste – but here the logical flips. If you let beef simmer, most of the taste actually moves into the liquid, not the other way around. In a soup or a stew is exactly what you want because the broth is the star. But for Vaca Frita, where the liquid does not go to the final dish, why waste time? The use of water easily keeps this recipe so that the beef taste can shine through. The chuck is slowly in the cooking fluid while its taste concentrates. The result is meat that only tastes of itself -closed, intensely strong and perfectly prepared to suck the Knoblum -Lime -Marinade.
Smash it
As soon as the chuck is cooked and falls tender, I reach for my meat hammer. The meat to smash the meat before it is further crushed with your hands or two forks is a faster and more efficient way to divide the fibers into a mixture of fine threads and larger slopes. This combination of textures is of crucial importance: the thin, thread -strength pieces, which are crispy in hot oil, while the thicker lush and give them the crispy contrast, the great VACA frita defines. And if you do not have a racket, don’t rethink it – use a potato stamping horse, the bottom of a pan or even your fist, which is wrapped in a towel. Imperial is part of the charm of this court.
Serious food / Lorena Masso
The Post-Smash Marinade
The marinade is as simple as the cooking method. Five cloves of garlic are grated as fine as possible and stirred together with lime juice, cumin, salt and pepper. This mixture gives the warm beef brightness and spice as they soften cut onions in a pan. Don’t try to fry everything together. By cooking the onions from beef you can control textures more precisely. The onions are cute and slightly caramelized, and the beef is fried in batches until it is golden brown and crispy.
In the end, the onions and beef come back together in the pan, just long enough to warm up and take on a last splash. Practically with black beans and rice, Vaca Frita delivers a filling, a weekday -friendly meal with crispy edges, delicate bumps and a light hit by citrus fruits, which she grabs after the next bite.
The crispy, juicy Cuban beef of my family is my favorite meal in the week of the week
Cooking mode
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2 pound ((907 G))) Roast beef Or shoulder roast (Falda de Res), cut into 4 pieces
2 Laurel leaves
2 tablespoon fresh Lime juice out of 1 limePlus lime wedges for garnishing
5 medium (25 G))) Garlic Carnategrated or finely chopped
4 1/4 teaspoon Diamond crystal kosher saltdivided; Use half as much of the volume for table salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup ((60 ML))) olive oildivided and more if necessary
1 medium White onion ((8 Ounce; 227 G), halved and thinly cut into slices
Cuban black beans and rice Prescription for serving, optional
Add beef, laurel leaves, 1 tablespoon of salt and enough cold water in a large saucepan or a Dutch oven to simply cover the meat and bring to cook. Cover and reduce heat on medium; Let simmer until the beef is very tender, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours.
Serious food / Lorena Masso
Use a spider skimmer or a large slotted spoon to transfer meat into a large cutting board (reserve the beef broth in other recipes.) Let yourself be cooled for about 15 minutes. Use a meat hammer or a potato stammer to be too flat and loosen its fibers and form a mixture of fine fasting and larger parts (see notes). Remove all large fascular parts and resentors and reject them.
Serious food / Lorena Masso
Whisk in a large bowl to combine 1 tablespoon of lime juice, garlic, 1 teaspoon of salt, black pepper and cumin. Add a crushed beef to the shell, reject yourself to combine, and use your hands to crush into bite -size pieces. set aside.
Serious food / Lorena Masso
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium heat in a large pan until it shimmers. Add onions and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon of salt and cook until the onion is 5 to 7 minutes to soften and become translucent. Transfer the onion to a plate and cover it with foil to stay warm. Don’t wipe the pan.
Serious food / Lorena Masso
In the now empty pan, add the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil and heat them over medium heat until you shimmer. Work in batches to prevent the pan from spreading the process in the pan in a thin, even layer. Cook without interest until the floor is crispy, 3 to 4 minutes, then a spatula to the flip cow and cook further until the beef is browned and crispy on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer cooked beef with onions to panels. Repeat this with the remaining beef and add 1 tablespoon of oil when the pan is too dry.
Serious food / Lorena Masso
Longs the onions and beef to swivel together and cook over medium heat to combine. Switch off the heat and mix the remaining 1 tablespoon of lime juice. Serve immediately with Lime Wedges and Black Beans and Rice, if desired.
Serious food / Lorena Masso
