Guiso de Berenjena (Cuban Eggplant Stew)

This eggplant dish is very healthy in that the eggplant being a vegetable that absorbs a lot of oil doesn't get deep-fried or sauteed in oil instead it is simmered in a savory creole style tomato based sauce with bits of ham, pork or beef for flavor and for freshness minced cilantro or parsley towards the end.

This is my Tata's recipe (grandmother) right now she is at home with us recovering from a fracture she had from a fall, and moved back in temporarily or permanently (the choice is hers I love her) anyways I had 3 Chinese eggplants sitting in the fridge, I was gonna make eggplant in a Chinese fashion braised in "Yuxiang" sauce (sauteed garlic, ginger, scallions, chili peppers, chili bean sauce, soy sauce, salt, sugar brought together with some chicken stock thickened with corn starch to form a sauce can have ground pork, beef, or be vegetarian and if you please some Sichuan peppercorns can be added to add a numbing effect) but knowing my grandmother she wouldn't be able to eat this (doesn't tolerate spiciness and isn't very open to different things) so I wanted to make something with flavors she is more used to.

So I asked her, "Tata I read somewhere about a Cuban eggplant stew do you know a recipe for it or how to make it? Have you ever made it?" she was like sure "do this and that, etc." and so here is the recipe. Let me tell you it was very very delicious and I think I will be making it again :)

Ingredients:
-3 large Chinese Eggplants (or 1 large American one) cut into small cubes
-1 large onion minced
-1 green or red bell pepper minced
-4 cloves garlic mashed to a paste or finely minced
-1/2 lbs. ham or beef or pork meat cut into tiny cubes (like less than 1/2 inch small minced)
-1 can 8 oz. tomato sauce
-2 cups beef broth or water
-salt to taste
-1 teaspoon ground cumin
-1/2 bunch of very finely minced parsley or cilantro
-extra- virgin olive oil (generous amount to coat pan well)

Directions:
(1) Heat oil on medium high, brown chopped meat or ham together with onion and bell pepper, when meat or ham is slightly browned and onions are translucent add garlic, sautee until fragrant.

(2) Add tomato sauce, higher heat to high let it bubble, add beef broth or water bring to a high boil, now add cumin, stir well, taste if it needs more salt.

(3) Add chopped eggplant to boiling sauce, stir well, when boiling cover on medium low for about 5-10 minutes (depends)

(4) Now sprinkle in generous amount of parsley or cilantro and turn off heat. Serve with rice and whatever meat dish you want.

PLEASE NOTE:
*The meat or ham is added for flavor, it's not the main part of the dish. My grandmother say's you can also use a little ground pork or beef instead of tiny cubed meat, and if you don't have ham that can be cut in chunks just chop finely the sliced ham about 4-6 slices. She doesn't like this vegetarian by the way but if you insist go head it will still be delicious in my opinion (common a sofrito, cumin, and beef broth it's bound to be delicious)

*If using American eggplant you may want to peel it.

Guiso de Carne Con Platano (Cuban Beef and Plantain Stew)

I personally never cooked this at home, I was flipping through one of my Cuban cookbooks "Memories of a Cuban Kitchen" by Mary Urrutia Randelman whom is a Cuban exile from pre- castro Havana, Cuba and has very delicious recipes. Anyways I bumped into this beef and plantain stew she called "Carne Guisada Con Platano" (pg. 129) in the book and had some plantains sitting on the counter top and a large amount of beef chuck so I said, "Why not sounds interesting" of course I did it my way, I only used her recipe as a guideline and inspiration. I use the same spices just different proportions, use lard instead of olive oil (trust me it goes really well here, lard gives Cuban meat dishes a wonderful taste), less wine, don't use beef stock (for what I didn't have it on hand and the beef is gonna boil for a long time in the sauce so there's your beefy flavor) and add a generous amount of cilantro and leave wiggle room for any other changes which I think are fine.

The semi sweet, semi-ripe plantains give it a nice sweetness and plantain taste, BUT and it's a big BUT (haha just kidding) I know some aren't fond of sweet in their dishes, so one could easily use green plantains and end up with a delicious stew, or leftover Tostones or heck if you have the time fry tostones just to add to it (although if you go through the trouble of making them shouldn't you just eat them as a side?)

Ingredients:
-1/2 cup lard or olive oil (I use lard)
-4 1/2 lbs. beef chuck cut into 2 inch pieces (you can use beef stew meat to)
-salt to taste
-ground black pepper to taste (I use about 1 teaspoon)
-2 medium onions minced
-2 medium green bell peppers minced
-1 head of garlic mashed (garlic press or mortar)
-1 cup dry white wine
-1 can 15 ounce can tomato sauce
-water (enough to cover meat about 4 cups more or less)
-1 teaspoon dried oregano
-3 bay leaves
-1 tablespoon ground cumin
-2 tablespoons sweet smoked Spanish paprika (optional use it if you have it though)
-6 large semi-ripe plantains peeled cut into 2 inch rounds (yellow or yellow with black spots)
-1 large bunch of cilantro, washed, chopped up finely

Directions:
(1) Pat- dry meat, heat a very large shallow pan on very high heat, when pan is super hot add lard, melt it until it slightly smokes, add beef all in one layer, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Brown meat in lard (this may take a long time, depending on how much liquid your meat releases it took me about 20- 30 minutes)

(2) Meanwhile prep everything, when meat is browned sautee onions, bell pepper about 7 minutes on medium high, add garlic stir until fragrant, deglaze with wine, add tomato sauce and water bring to a rolling boil.

(3) Now add more salt if nesseccary, throw all the spices (cumin, sweet smoked spanish paprika and bay leaves), bring to a rolling boil, cover and simmer on low for about 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours.(4) When meat is tender add plantains, cover and cook an additional 30 minutes, add more water if nesseccary. Finally when plantains are tender stir in cilantro.
(5) Serve with fluffy white rice and whatever sides you'd like :)
IMPORTANT IMPORTANT PLEASE NOTE:
(1) I cooked a really large amount you can cut the recipe in half. The reason I cooked so much is because I want leftovers to take to school with me for lunch.

(2) I REPEAT Some people don't like semi-ripe plantains because of the sweetness they impart. You can substitute the semi-ripe plantains for green plantains. Or even if you want to go through the trouble you can add Tostones instead to soak up the deliciousness in that case simmer only 5- 10 minutes instead of 30.

(3) You can use pork instead of beef.

Pulpeta (Cuban Meatloaf)

Pulpeta is the Cuban version of American meat loaf. American meat loaf is usually made from seasoned ground meat binded with eggs and breadcrumbs then baked in the oven usually glazed with ketchup or tomato sauce. In general American meatloaf can be bland and boring (most meat loafs from restaurants and such). Although I must say if done right it can also be delicious.

What makes this Cuban version so different? Well for one the meat loaf isn't cooked in the oven. It is fried on the stovetop until well browned or a golden crust forms, then it is simmered in a delicious creole sauce. Generally it will also have hard boiled egg in the center for looks.

To be honest in my family we never made Pulpeta, I've only read of it, and seen it on other Cuban blogs. I was craving a delicious Pulpeta and since I don't have a family recipe for it or anything then I decided to come up with my own :) This is my version of the Cuban meatloaf.

Ingredients for loaf:
-1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
-1 1/2 lbs. ground pork
-1/2 lbs. ground ham (grind your own in a food processor)
-1 heaping tablespoon sweet smoked spanish paprika
-1 heaping teaspoon hot smoked spanish paprika
-1 heaping teaspoon ground black pepper
-1 heaping teaspoon ground oregano
-3-4 cloves garlic mashed to a paste
-1 1/2 teaspoons salt (more or less to taste)
-3 large eggs beaten (or 4 regular ones)
-1/2 cup bread crumbs or cracker meal
-3 hard boiled eggs

Ingredients for Sauce:
-1/2 cup olive oil (more or less)
-1 red or green bell pepper minced
-1 onion minced
-6-8 cloves garlic minced
-1 can 8 oz. tomato sauce
-1/2 cup dry white wine
-1- 2 cup water
-salt to taste
-1 teaspoon ground cumin
-1/4- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
-2 bay leaves

Garnish (optional):
1/4- 1/2 cup sweet peas

Directions:
(1) Mix ground pork, ground beef, ground ham, with smoked sweet and hot spanish paprika, black pepper, oregano, garlic, salt, eggs, and bread crumbs/ cracker meal. Form into a loaf and cut open, fill with hard boiled egg and let rest in fridge wrapped in plastic wrap or something for about 2 hours. ALSO PLEASE DO NOT OVER MIX it makes the loaf tougher. The meat less tender

(2) Now heat a large frying pan on high heat till really hot, lower to medium high, kinda high but not super high, add generous amount of olive oil in a large frying pan allow to heat til it barely smokes. Brown loaf carefully on all sides. (Yes this can be intimidating and hard my mom did it for me while I took pictures ha ha) When well browned set aside.

(3) In same pan start forming your sauce sautee onions and bell peppers until onion is translucent about 5-7 minutes on medium high heat, then add garlic and sautee until fragrant another 1-2 minutes, deglaze with wine, add tomato sauce, water, salt, cumin, and bay leaves bring to a boil.

(4) Throw sauce in a deep pot, bring back to boil, add browned meatloaf, spoon over sauce, when sauce is boiling cover and simmer on low for about 25 minutes, flip the loaf carefully to the other side spoon sauce over, simmer an additional 25 minutes. Now add minced cilantro and peas all over.

(5) You can transfer loaf to a large plate to slice it and leave the rest of the sauce in the pot, use sauce to spoon over slices as much as you like. We served it with simple home made mashed potatoes (potatoes, milk, butter, salt and if you wish a drizzle of good olive oil) which we used the sauce from cooking the loaf as gravy to top the mashed potatoes one could also enjoy it with rice, and also served it with a simple salad (onion, cucumber, tomato, avocado with lemon or lime juice, olive oil, and salt)

PLEASE NOTE:
*Do your best not to make cracks or openings when browning loaf, because when simmering the meat this sounds gross but the scum or blood whatever is in the meat will clump and ooze out, if this happens scoop it out and remove.

*I know not everyone has access to sweet smoked Spanish paprika, or hot smoked Spanish paprika. If you still want to make this just omit it and season with cumin, oregano, and black pepper it will still be delicious but just different. The way I made mine is I wanted it to taste like a cross between sweet savory ham and delicious smokey Spanish chorizo but you can season it however you want, let this recipe be for inspiration, make your own sauce, season the loaf your way, make it yours sometimes the best stuff comes out from experimentation.

*If frying 1 large loaf is intimidating or you don't want such a large loaf you can make two small ones and fry both of them and simmer both together in the sauce.

Estofado de Puerco Con Papa, Zanahoria, y Judias Verdes (Spanish-style Pork Stew with Potato, Carrot, and Green Beans)

Pork is stewed in a savory flavorful tomato based sauce that is very smokey and rich, the smokiness comes from freshly ground black pepper, the wonderful fragrant smoked sweet and hot Spanish paprika that gives Spanish chorizo's it's signature taste, the richness comes from the rendered pork fat and chunks of meat to finish potatoes, carrots and green beans are simmered in the sauce to make this a complete one pot meal that can stand alone, or marry with rice or bread.

I came up with this recipe myself on Saturday morning. I had no idea what to cook for Saturday when I was planning on Friday night. I didn't want to making a simple Cuban "Guiso de Carne de Puerco"/ "Fricasse de Puerco" (Cuban Pork stew/ Pork Fricasse) or a "Lechon Asado" (which I will post in the future) I was still craving a tomato based dish since the weather was a little chili. I was also wanted to use the delicious smoked sweet and hot spanish paprika my friend IDania sent me from Spain (I thank her a million, it was so nice of her I truly appreciate).

So I thought hey I'll make something similar to "Guiso de Carne de Puerco" but instead use the paprikas I recieved and add some carrot and potatoes the way I make my "Fricasse de Pavo" (turkey Fricasse) then when I was adding the carrots and potatoes my mother told me, "Hey you can add green beans that way you don't have to make a salad or tempted to make other vegetable sides if your tired, you know my mother when she made "Carne Con Papas" (beef stew) for her Iranian boss, he told her to add green beans, he liked it that way because in their culture theirs a meat stew that incorporates green beans you should try it" (she told me in Spanish I just translated) so I ended up adding green beans. And that's the story of how I came up with this dish :)

I loved the end the result and hope some of you guys give it a try :)

Ingredients:
-4 lbs. pork meat cut into 1 inch cubes (I use the pork but or leg)
-freshly ground black pepper to taste (I use enough to generously sprinkle all pork)
-salt to taste (I added about 3 teaspoons I don't measure it though)
-1-2 tablespoon rendered pork fat/ lard
-1 green bell pepper minced
-1 red bell pepper minced
-2 medium onions minced
-8 large cloves of garlic minced
-1 can 15 oz. or 2 cans 8 oz. tomato sauce
-1 cup dry white wine or red wine (your choice)
-1 tablespoon sweet smoked Spanish paprika (Pimienton Dulce de la Vera)
-1 teaspoon hot smoked Spanish paprika (Pimienton Picante de la Vera)
-3 dry whole bay leaves
-1 1/2 teaspoons monosodium glutamine/ msg (optional)
-5 potatoes peeled, cut in half
-10 medium carrots peeled cut into 2 inch rounds
-1/2 lbs. green beans (washed, edges trimmed, cut in half)
Directions:
(1) Heat a very large pan (I mean large I used a "Paellera" to cook this, which is those giant pans used for making "Paella" which is Spanish yellow rice with seafood and sometimes meat.) Heat the pan on very high heat, you can test it by splashing some water, if it screams and dances it's hot.

(2) Melt very little lard to barely coat the bottom of the pan, when it almost smokes from the heat add pork in one layer, generously season now with salt and pepper and don't stir. For awhile until browned on one side.

(3) Meanwhile you can prep while the pork is browning and chop and take out all the other ingredients. While pork is browning after awhile maybe 10 minutes, start stirring occasionally until any released liquid evaporates and let pork render all it's fat and brown all over.

(4) Set pork aside and lower heat to medium high, you should have generous amounts of rendered pork fat that is delicious, now add red and green bell peppers as well as onions until fragrant stirring occasionally about 5-7 minutes, then add garlic and stir for about 2 minutes until very fragrant but don't burn it. Now add sweet and hot smoked spanish paprika stir 30 seconds and quickly add wine to reduce and deglaze the whole pan, now add tomato sauce and bring to a rolling boil, stir a bit then when thickened and reduced add about 3-4 cups water.
(5) Now bring all contents in pan back to a boil, and pork meat back along with some bay leaves and at this point add the msg if using. Cover and boil for about 35- 40 minutes until tender.
(6)Then uncover, add more water if necessary and bring to a rolling boil now add potatoes, carrots and green beans, cover and cook 30- 40 minutes.
The potatoes absorbed some of the liquid so it reduced, if you want more sauce than add a bit more water but remember to salt more if you add more liquid.
(7) Now turn off heat and ready to serve. You can eat it with some fluffy white rice or yellow rice, or even just in a large bowl with some delicious crusty bread (bolillos, french bread, Cuban bread, your choice I love those though) Heck you can add maybe another potato or more and make this meal stand alone without rice or bread.

P.S.

Monosodium Glutamine is optional, I know some people are strongly against it, if you are then simply skip it. It is used in Asian cooking and Cuban cooking uses it under the brand name "Accent" or when they use powdered "Goya Sazon" packets to enhance dishes. Also in Latin America it is used without them knowing many use "Knorr" or "Cubito Maggi" and other powdered chicken and meat bouillons that produce the msg taste and are blended with it. In Spain it is sometimes used as"Pastilla de Pescado" or "Pastilla de Carne" which is like instant broth. Msg produces the flavor "umami" which is giving the sense of a meaty or brothy taste. I am guilty of using it sometime.

Also the flavor is produced by free glutamines which is natural in certain stuff like meat, tomatoes, mushrooms, eggplant, yeast extract as well as cured meats and sausages.

It's up to you, I personally don't have an allergy to it, neither does anyone in my household. Some are sensitive to it some aren't.

Sopa de Frijoles Colorados (Cuban Red Bean Soup)

Red and Black beans are the beans in Cuban cooking that usually accompany white rice, and any other side dishes. They are almost always served with dinner or some main meal of the day, They are a staple (though with modern times and all I've seen that due to time constraints or not that much involvement in the kitchen many just eat rice and on the other hand beans become occasional) More commonly the staple is black beans (for western Cuban cooking) and red beans is more popular in Eastern Cuba (or so I've read somewhere and or assume because of the popularity of "Congri" there as opposed to "Moros" which is more common in western Cuba) usually a meal will have.

In addition we sometimes cook large heavy Spanish and Cuban style bean stews with chorizo, lots of beef or pork, orange fleshed squash, potatoes, etc. one large hardy stand alone bean stew. These heavy stews can stand alone and need only rice or bread, and if one wishes a salad. Red beans are sometimes utilized to make these heavy "Potajes" such as my "Potaje de Frijoles Colorados" but sometimes I'm in the mood for a simple red bean soup that I can eat with as a side with any meal to accompany my rice, and meat or seafood sides and veggies.

So here I present a simple red bean soup that isn't a main stand alone meal, it just a simple red bean stew to be eaten as a side or over rice with whatever you'd like. A good change from when you get tired of eating the typical Cuban black beans (although I never do, but I like variety anyways)

Ingredients:

-3 cups dry uncooked large red beans washed and drained

-water (enough to submerge red beans about 1 1/2 tsp 2 inches)

-1 onion minced

-1/2 head of garlic peeled minced and or mashed to a paste (garlic press or mortar)

-1 can 8 oz. tomato sauce

-4-6 cachucha peppers leave whole (depends on their size)

-1/4 to 1/3 cups lard or bacon grease (use pork fat for this NOT optional i.m.o)

-1/2 lbs. pork ham or pork meat cut into small 1/2 inch cubes (optional)

-1 small ham bone or pork bone (optional)
-1 teaspoon ground cumin
-1/2 teaspoon oregano
-salt to taste (I put about 1 1/2- 2 teaspoons eyeballed)

Directions:

(1) Bring beans to a boil in water with pork bone or ham bone (optional). Boil until tender about 1 1/2- 2 hours depends.

(2) When beans are tender, heat lard or bacon grease (you can render some bacon grease by mincing bacon and frying it until it renders fat, and proceed), then add cubed pork meat or ham and brown meat (maybe takes 10- 15 minutes remember the meat is optional), when meat is browned (if you added some meat) add onion and cook until onion is translucent about 5 minutes, then add garlic and stir until fragrant. Add ground cumin and oregano stir a bit and when fragrant like 30 seconds add tomato sauce. Bring to a rolling boil

(3) Add what you sauteed in the lard and or bacon grease to the boiling beans when they are tender. Then add a handful of cachucha peppers (we call "Aji Cachucha"), add salt if needed, let beans simmer uncovered on medium heat until thickened stirring occasionally an additional 10- 20 minutes.

(4) Your done enjoy.

Please Note:
(1) Even if the red beans are being served as a side or soup to accompany other stuff, I still like adding a little bit of chopped up pork meat because it lends good flavor as well as the bone. And it's not that much only 1/2 lbs. meat for 1 lbs. beans. You can leave out the meat completely if you wish and just make a "bacon" sofrito to.

(2) If you don't have "aji cachucha"/ cachucha peppers simply substitute by frying together with the onions 1 green bell pepper minced.

(3) Red beans depend heavily on pork, they are usually always cooked with pork products and are best that way to. But if for some reason your super kosher or paranoid (even though pork fat is less saturated than butter, high in monounsaturated fat, and most of it's saturated fat is stearic acid which converts to mono-fat in the body) then you can substitute for a good quality olive oil I guess, but it WONT BE THE SAME!

In Addition

I'm submitting this recipe over to Cook Sister who is hosting the famous My Legume Love Affair this month, brainchild of Susan at The Well-Seasoned Cook.

Empanadilla de Carne (Mini Galician Meat Pies)

This is a repost of my old post for "Empanadilla de Carne" I feel I didn't do such a good job last time at taking the pictures, and just didn't make them the best I could. I'm reposting it.

This recipe is "Pilar Lechuza" who cooks traditional home-style Galician food, she is what I consider the "Queen of Empanadas" she is very skillful at what she cooks, and of course the "Empanadas" of other countries originate in Galicia, Spain (or so it is claims).

Ingredients for dough:
-1/2 cup dry white wine
-1/2 cup water
-1/2 cup oil (preferably oil released from cooking the filling, but if not I suggest heating olive oil on medium heat until it get's hot then turn off and stir in a big fat pinch of sweet smoked spanish paprika to infuse the oil, don't burn the paprika be careful, then strain and use to make dough)
-1/2- 1 teaspoon salt
-plain all purpose flour (as much as needed to form dough)

Ingredients for filling I used today:
-1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
-1 onion minced
-1 green bell pepper minced
-5 cloves garlic finely minced
-1 can 8 oz. tomato sauce
-salt to taste (about 1 1/2 teaspoon)
-1 heaping teaspoon sweet smoked spanish paprika
-3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (seems like a lot but it will be drained to be used to make the dough this oil will be very flavorful for the dough)

Directions:
(1) Prepare filling by heating oil, sautee onions and bell peppers 5 minutes on medium high add meat season with salt and brown rendering the meats fat on medium high, then add garlic sautee until fragrant, then add sweet smoked spanish paprika stir a bit when fragrant add tomato sauce stir and raise heat, let the tomato reduce and oil starts frying it. Finally remove heat and put meat filling on a strainer to drain fat over a large bowl about 5 minutes which will be used to make dough mine yielded exactly 1/2 cup flavored oil.

(2) Set aside meat drained meat mixture and leave oil in large bowl, in large bowl add dry white wine, water, and salt, start stirring in flour little by little with your hand until the dough no longer sticks to your hand and becomes workable. Transfer to a floured surface, work dough.

(3) Stretch dough out on floured surface with a rolling pin, cut into round flat circles using whatever you have, put some meat filling and fold over, seal with a fork. DO NOT SEAL WITH WATER the dough is oily and water will not stick. It doesn't need egg either, just press well, and seal with fork. The dough tends to shrink, I cut it into circles from the rolled dough, then again roll out those circles individually to and proceed with adding filling and sealing.
I'll be honest those are the one's I sealed and made and they just aren't perfect. I'm not good at making them, plus I was feeling tired. I let my boyfriend Travis do the rest of them and he did a great job, his Empanadas came out perfect :) (I know a Vietnamese boy who doesn't cook, made it better than me a Hispanic who cooks all the time shame on me...)
(4) Heat oil on medium high to high (but not super high) to fry empanadas, fry until browned on all sides. Drain, set on a large plate with paper towels to absorb oil, I used a large baking pan.
My babe made a really large one, we didn't have enough filling to finish all the dough so we made a thin large one which ended up being delicious and crispy as well.
I served it with a raw salad for my late lunch

IMPORTANT PLEASE NOTE! Fillings can vary:
(1)Shredded "Fricasse de Pollo" which is a chicken stew (see recipe by clicking on link)
(2)Picadillo without the potatoes leftover see recipe for "Picadillo Salteado"
(3)Leftover "Ropa Vieja" (shredded beef)
(4)Or Pilar Lechuza's filling done in the old post which was a tasty ground pork filling click on link. It's in spanish though. The filling is basically ground pork sauteed in olive oil with onion, garlic, and a large grated tomato seasoned with salt and sweet smoked paprika. Or check the old post I made.
(5)Cooked rotisseri shredded chicken mixed with grated cheese of your choice (I like Monterrey jack)
(6)Any leftover meat dish in a sauce shredded. Take any meat cooked leftover meat, shred or chop finely it, sautee lots of minced onion, maybe garlic in olive oil, add a little tomato sauce maybe some sweet smoked spanish paprika and there's your filling.

P.S.

These came out delicious, just made they are very crispy and delicious, enjoy hot and fresh because over time if left out they lose their crispiness, you'd have to reheat them in the oven at 375 or something to get them crispy again. Or the toaster oven. So best enjoy fresh :)

ALSO I make another delicious Empanada dough that Marilyn from "My Cuban Traumas" taught me :) check out the post for "Empanadas Cubanas" larger meat pies are "Empanadas Gallega" (Galician Pies) I'll start making a larger variety of those in the winter using Pilar's knowledge and what I have available. :)

Higado a la Italiana de mi Tata (My Tata's Liver Stirfry with Onion and Bell Pepper "Italian Style")

Tata is what we call my grandmother in my family. She is like a walking Cuban cookbook, any recipe I wanna know I simply ask I'll get one for anything that's Cuban she knows a few Spaniard dishes here and there to.

Higado a la Italiana meaning liver Italian style is a Cuban dish which I have no clue why they named it "Italian style" maybe something to do with method of preparation of marination? No clue... all I know that the recipe became popular or known when Nitza Villapol the Cuban Julia Child who became a communist introduced this dish in her cookbook "Cocina al Minuto" also Mary Urrutia Randelman shared her family version of the dish "Higado a la Italiana"

My Tata's version is neither like Nitza's nor Mary Urrutia, the reason their version of the dish is disliked or not cooked in my house is because the liver is marinaded in a lot of liquid (a generous amount of wine and vinegar with flour, salt, garlic, and pepper) a long with julienned bell peppers, onions, and a couple bay leaves. The problem is Nitza's and Mary Urrutia recipes heat oil, add bell pepper and onion and then higher heat and add liver with all marinade and stir for a few minutes like 10 THERE IS THE PROBLEM, it just boils the liver in the marinade with the bell pepper and onion... we don't like liver to be boiled liver in my house, we dislike the texture and taste obtained it causes the liver to release it's own juices and just taste blah in my opinion. (Believe me I've prepared this dish Nitza's way)

My Tata everytime we cooked liver it would be fried in very very smoking high heat until well browned on all sides. My grandmother's version is as follows:

She get's liver cut into bite sizes, very well seasoned and marinaded in vinegar, salt, lots of garlic, and smokey cumin she then fries it in very hot oil until well browned and quickly stirfry's it together with julienned onions and bell peppers and finishes seasoning it with a touch oregano or if no oregano is wanted she fries the bay leaves in the hot oil, removes and continues with the recipe. I prefer this version any day :)

Now here's the recipe with pictorials to be more specific.

Ingredients:
-1 ½ lbs. beef liver
-12 cloves garlic (pressed through a garlic press or mashed in a mortar to a paste)
-1 teaspoon ground cumin
-1- 2 teaspoons salt
-2 tablespoons white vinegar
-2 medium onions julienne
-1 large or 2 small green bell peppers julienned
-1/2 teaspoon dried oregano or 2 bay leaves your choice (oregano is better in my opinion)
-more salt to taste as needed.
-1/2 cup cooking oil that can withstand high heat (canola, vegetable, corn, lard, etc. )

NOTE BEFORE I START:
I know it seems like A LOT of oil, but REMEMBER this is to fry the liver, you can drain and or take out some of the oil after the liver is fried, my grandmother leaves all the oil in their, my mom likes to drain some of it.

Directions:
(1) Beef liver washed, cleaned, remove nerves, silver skin, and fat leave as clean as possible even if you must waste some of the liver meat. I buy 1 ½ lbs because I end up throwing ½ after cleaning. HUGE TIP when buying liver make sure your butcher shows you all sides of it because if the entire back area or not seen area has lots of nerves and holes IT IS NO GOOD tell him to get you another because nerves and other bad parts curl and give a very hard texture sometimes. UNLESS YOU ARE POOR PLEASE JJUST CLEAN IT WELL AND REMOVE ANY QUESTIONABLE AREAS THE FINAL RESULT IS WORTH IT.

(2) Now cut liver into BITE sizes and toss with vinegar, cumin, salt, and garlic.

(3) Heat a heavy skillet or wok on HIGH HEAT with generous amounts of oil ALMOST enough to pan fry you need really hot nearly smoking temperature. (about 1/2 a cup) wait until the oil starts smoking (your gonna want windows open or that filter fan in kitchens)

(4) Add liver in one layer leave alone a couple minutes until browned about 10- 15 minutes then toss to flip or move around until it is almost cooked and not pink.

(7) Add onions and bell peppers as well as oregano or bay leave and cook until onions and bell peppers pic up drippings and get rid of raw taste of onion.

(8) IMMEDIATELY serve this is NO GOOD WHEN IT COOLS SERVE IMMEDIATELY! With some white rice and beans. BE SURE EVERYTHING IS READY OT SERVE BY THE TIME THIS IS COOKED THIS DISH IS MEANT TO BE EATEN AS FRESH AS POSSIBLE!

P.S.

She prepares this almost identical to "Higado a la Vizcaina" which is the same as this except no bell peppers, oregano, or bay leaf. Instead towards the end when the onions are soft you add cubed crispy deep-fried potatoes you previously fried and salted to add to this dish. I have a recipe post for that you can check if you like:

http://nathanscomida.blogspot.com/2008/07/higado-la-vizcaina-liver-la-vizcaina.html

In addition we also make "Higado Encebollado" (fried liver steaks with onions) marinaded the same way except whole steaks are fried set aside then in drippings lots of onions are fried and used to top the liver steak check it out here if you'd like to:

http://nathanscomida.blogspot.com/2008/09/higado-encebollado-con-papa-frita-liver.html