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Falso tamal en cazuela o harina de maíz criolla, de la cocina cubana

Los tamales son un clásico de la cocina tradicional cubana. Se elaboran a base de maíz tierno molido o rallado y se presentan envueltos en las hojas del propio maíz. Su preparación es pura efervescencia e implica a casi toda la familia. También está la versión sin hojas, en cazuela, menos trabajosa, pero igual de sabrosa. Lejos de aquella Isla se hace un poco difícil, no imposible, su preparación, sobre todo porque hallar en Europa el maíz tierno (no dulce), con sus hojas y todo, no es tarea fácil.

En casa llevamos con antojos de tamales hace bastante tiempo y hemos descubierto en un supermercado Carrefour una harina de maíz (polenta) ideal para hacer esta adaptación. Lo de falso es porque un tamal en cazuela se hace con maíz tierno, insisto, y no con harina de maíz, que también se comía mucho en Cuba, pero de otras formas. Sin embargo, con un sofrito criollo como el que acompaña esta receta, este plato está muy cerca de los gloriosos tamales cubanos.

Si estás en alguna parte del planeta donde puedas conseguir la materia prima básica para unos tamales de verdad, date una vuelta por La Cocina de Vero. Esta cocinera sabe cómo prepararlos. Ahora, pongamos manos a la obra con esta receta que da para unas ocho personas. Ten en cuenta que si quieres hacer menos puedes reducir a la mitad las cantidades.

Ingredientes para preparar Falso tamal en cazuela o Harina de maíz criolla

(8 personas)

500 gr de harina de maíz o polenta
2 litros de caldo de carne o agua
250 ml de leche
600 gr de magro de cerdo (masitas limpias en trozos pequeños)
150 gr de beicon en taquitos o tiritas
1 diente de ajo
pimienta
sal

Para la salsa criolla:

1 cebolla grande picada en brunoise
1 diente de ajo grande o 2 pequeñitos
1/4 de pimiento rojo cortado en brunoise
1/4 de pimiento verde cortado en brunoise
unos granos de cilantro (opcional)
1 tomate maduro rallado o troceado
1 taza de salsa de tomate o tomate frito
1 cdta de orégano
1 cdta de comino
3 cda aceite de oliva virgen extra (puedes utilizar otro)
sal

Procedimiento

Primero haremos las masitas de cerdo. Sazona la carne troceadita con sal (yo utilicé gorda) y pimienta negra recién molida, reserva.
En una sartén pon a sofreír el beicon. Cuando dore y si ves que suelta poca grasa pon una cucharada de aceite de oliva y añade la carne, primero a fuego vivo para que selle y luego baja la intensidad de la candela para que se cocine poco a poco y vaya dorando sin quemarse. En medio del proceso añade un diente de ajo picadito al gusto.
Cuando la carne ya esté en su punto añade otras dos cucharadas de aceite (si es necesario) y añade la cebolla y los pimientos. Deja sofreír unos cinco minutos.
Mientras, maja en un mortero con una pizca de sal el otro diente de ajo, los granos de cilantro, el comino y el orégano. Añade el majado al sofrito junto con el tomate maduro troceado. Deja sofreír por otros tres minutos y finalmente añade la salsa de tomate o tomate frito. Reserva mientras preparas la harina.
Para cocinar la harina de maíz, lo mejor es que te guíes por las instrucciones del paquete. Las proporciones que indico en los ingredientes por lo general se aplican para casi todos los paquetes, pero a veces no se cumplen. En vez de agua utiliza caldo y leche y ten a mano más agua por si es necesario, dependiendo del espesor que vaya adquiriendo y del gusto. Aquí te dejo una imagen de la polenta que he empleado.
Polenta Doña Petrona. (Carrefour)
Lleva el agua o caldo a ebullición. Baja la intensidad del fuego y ve incorporando la harina poco a poco y removiendo, añade la leche y sigue removiendo. Dependiendo del tipo de harina se cocinará y adquirirá el espesor deseado antes o después. Si necesita más líquido pon y mezcla. (Consejo: Busca una polenta finita y pon la candela bajita para que no se queme o pegue)
Una vez tengas al punto la harina añade las masitas con la salsa criolla, mezcla bien y listo. Sirve y a la mesa. La que quede pásala a una fuente cuadrada o algún molde. Podrás trocearla en cuadraditos y ponerla para picar con cerveza.

¿Quieres acompañar esta harina criolla con otras recetas cubanas? Prueba estos tostones de plátano y como postre este flan de leche y caramelo.

Etiquetas: cocina cubana, comida criolla cubana, comida cubana, Cuban recipe, maíz, receta cubana, tamal en cazuela, tamales, tamales cubanos

Comentarios 2 comentarios
Categorías Entrantes, Platos principales, Uncategorized

BBQ chicken: Cuban recipe for pressure cooker

15 Ago

Today I want to share a barbecue chicken recipe, more or less in the way it is prepared in Cuba. It is usually cooked in the oven or into a pressure cooker as well. This once I decided to prepare the recipe into the pressure cooker, a wonderful inventive and a great ally in order to save time inside our kitchens. This is a very easy recipe made in the own way the Cuban mothers and grandmothers cook up BBQ sauce.

The BBQ chicken is prepared in many different ways, depending on where it´s prepares. It´s very popular in the U.S.A, and although the preparation´s common denominator is the sweet sauce and the way we marinate the chicken, it change a little according to the ingredients they chosen, even along the American territory.

The way I present it today is the way, more or less, it´s cook up in Cuba, but I´m sure there are a few versions more of the Cuban BBQ chicken, because in the Cuban gastronomy, the most of the recipes often carries a little bit of improvisation, sometimes adjustments that respond to the availability of one product or another. Without any more delay, let´s prepare our today´s recipe.

Ingredients

2 chicken leg quarters

1 onion

4 garlic cloves

1/2 red bell pepper

1/2 yellow bell pepper (or green bell pepper)

juice of one orange

2 grated tomatoes (or 4 tbsp crushed tomato or tomato sauce)

4 tbsp mustard

one generous splash soy sauce

1 tsp brown sugar

2 cup chicken broth

50 g salt butter

black pepper

salt

How to prepare BBQ chicken: pressure cooker´s Cuban recipe

Remove the chicken skin, season to taste with salt and black pepper.
Golden the chicken into the pressure cooker with 25 g of butter. Take the chicken out and put aside.
Put down the heat, add the other 25 g of butter and stir-fry the garlic into slices, the onion and two kinds of bell pepper into cubes. Season. It is not necessary cut the vegetables into very fine pieces, because later we going to triturate them in order to get a thinner BBQ sauce.
Add the tomato when the vegetables are cooked. If the tomato is natural let cooking during 8-10 minutes.
Incorporate the mustard, the soy sauce, the chicken broth (just 1 cup and reserve the other), the orange juice and the brown sugar´s tea spoon. Let cook and reduce uncovered.
Now add the two chicken pieces (if only there is very little liquid, then add more broth chicken until the pieces are covered), cover the pressure cooker, adjust the pressure valve in position number 2, increase the heat and when it start liberating pressure, down the heat and let it cook. Depending on the intensity of your pressure cooker, it will need more or less time. Mine´s very fast, so 12 minutes are enough time, counted from that it stars to whistle. Chicken cooks very fast into pressure cookers in general.
Once the time has spent and the pressure has liberated, take the chicken out and let´s triturate the sauce. If it has been lot of liquid, strain the vegetables, triturate, and then incorporate the extra liquid, little by little, in order to get the desired density. The sauce should be light but not watered.
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Serve the chicken, dress with sauce and put the rest into a sauceboat to try more. The sauce you don´t use save it very well covered into the fridge, for two or three days; frozen it as well and you will be able to keep it longer and then use it with other meats.

This recipe can be prepared into the oven as well. Proceed seasoning the chicken with salt and black pepper and cover the pieces with the same amount of butter before. Put them into a baking tin and sprinkle with orange juice. Cook for 30 to 45 minutes until golden. Prepare the sauce in the same way I explained before. Cook up the sauce slowly while the chicken is baking and finally triturate with help of a blender. That´s all, enjoy as we did at home.

Etiquetas: BBQ chicken, chicken, Cuban gastronomy, Cuban recipe, pressure cooker recipe

Comentarios 2 comentarios
Categorías Main courses, Recipes

Stuffed potatoes: the Cuban recipe, step by step

19 Jul

Today I want to share a Cuban recipe, a classic on our mom’s menus, made of potatoes and mincemeat. I used to help my grandmother when she prepared them, no matter if the result were a little bit different of their perfectly round balls. I always insisted to eat the stuffed potatoes were prepared by myself, and I would enjoy so much elaborating them and later eaten them. I only participated at the moment of forming the balls, during the rest of the process I only used to watch and ask.

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Ingredients to prepare Stuffed potatoes: the Cuban recipe (4 persons)

5 potatoes

40 g butter (optional)

2 beaten eggs

bread crumbs for breading

250 g mincemeat

1 onion

4 crushed garlic cloves

1/2 red bell pepper

1/2 tsp dry oregano

1/2 tsp dry thyme

4 filled tbsp fry tomato sauce

2 tbsp oil

salt

black pepper

How to prepare Stuffed potatoes: the Cuban recipe

Season the mincemeat with salt and black pepper to taste. Mix it with the crushed garlic, the oregano and the thyme.
Heat the oil, add the onion and the red bell pepper, both finally chopped, leave them for a few minutes.
Once the onion transparences incorporate the meat until it golden, then add the tomato sauce (you can use natural crushed tomato). Stir very well in order to integrate every ingredient with the mincemeat and let it cook for 8-10 minutes. Cook the meat with a cover if it is dry, if it has lot of liquid cook it without the cover.
When the mincemeat has cooked, take it out into another recipient and put aside while we prepare the potatoes puree.

Keep in mind the stuffing should be more solid than in other preparations, because here the matter is make our work easier when we form the balls.

Let´s work our potato balls

Cook the potatoes in boiling water with salt to taste for 10 minutes, depending on how large or small you have cut the potatoes.
Make puree, add butter or not, check the salt and let it refresh no cool.
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Then, with help of a large spoon take first a portion, enough to form a ball, sculpt so that you make a hole in the centre in order to fill with a small spoon of our mincemeat.
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With the other hand take a smaller portion of puree, form a round layer and cover the filled ball, keep molding until you get a round ball, but don´t worry if it isn´t perfectly round at first time. Later it´ll catch a better form.
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All rights reserved by Tras La Receta

All rights reserved by Tras La Receta
When you have finished all the balls the puree has permitted to form (8-12), it is the moment to breading them: pass them first for the beaten egg with a pinch of salt and then for the breadcrumb . It is in this part of the process when you´ll see how your balls end taking the right form without bigger complications.
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All rights reserved by Tras La Receta

All rights reserved by Tras La Receta
Put them into the fridge at least for 10 minutes while you prepare a salad or any other accompaniment you prefer.
Fry the potatoes in abundant oil (wait the oil heat very well in order to avoid the balls break). Once they golden turn around, let golden again and take them out.
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Serve them with a salad of Roman lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and red onion seasoned with a sweet mustard vinaigrette. It´s very easy: 2 1/2 tbsp mustard, 2 tsp honey, a trickle of Jerez Vinegar, 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of salt and pepper, all very well mixed until the ingredients blended.

If you decide to try this recipe, it´ll be better you do it in advance. You can prepare the mincemeat while you prepare the puree. Remember let the puree refresh but not completely cool. With respect to the breading, if the bread is very thin, sometimes it is necessary to repeat the breading, so later they will fry better and you’ll avoid they absorb more fat, even if this could seen paradoxical. And no more for today: prepare soon this recipe and tell me then. Happy weekend! 🙂