Cuban food

As promised last night in Chat to kokopelli and mbock: first installment. More to come as I'm preparing actual dishes and can also post photos.

My mainstay is black beans for any cuban meal. I have an old copco pot (porcelain over cast iron) that I've had for years and use it solely for black beans.

Pick over a one pound package of black turtle beans, put in water to cover by 2 inches, and bring to a boil, no salt yet. Remove from heat, let stand one hour and drain. Refill pot to cover beans 2", add one whole peeled onion (do not cut, makes removal later easier), 1-2 whole cloves garlic, and one smoked ham hock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until beans are almost fully cooked. Ham hock may give off enough slt, so save salt addition for later.

Remove ham hock, cool, and shred what meat there is back into the pot. Remove onion and garlic... they will be mush by now anyway. Now, at this point, I get picky but you do not have to! I let my beans cool enough to refrigerate overnight in the pot and then scoop all the fat from the ham hocks off the top.

Return to stove, re-heat until beans are done. Many folks add cumin but I don't like my black beans to taste like chili. Adjust salt, and add pepper if you like.

Serve over rice with finely chopped onion and hard-boiled egg as garnish. Beans should be juicy, not dry.

One of my favorite Cuban meals is black beans & rice, puerco asado or puerco mastitas (either roast pork or pork chunks sautéed on stovetop) served with fresh lime for the pork, and platanos (bananas that must be cooked). I like both the platanos verde (green, and starchy) or very ripe and sweet.

Serve flan for dessert, and espresso.

I plan on making both those dishes in the next 2 days and will post recipes/how-to's and photos.