Cuban Meal - Fried Plantain, Pineapple and Avocado salad, Chicken Fricasse, Cuban Flan, and Rice pudding

So with the arrival of 2015, a few things happened. SO is celebrating a milestone birthday, and we decided we needed to get away to some fun in the sun as a family. Cuba is relatively close and cheap, and has nice beaches. Perfect!  So that went well, and after getting back we thought why not have some friends over and cook up a Cuban-themed meal. One of the friends that came also had ended up in Cuba (also partly because of a milestone birthday), although to a different part of the island, and 2 weeks after us. The following is what came of it all.

The recipes are all from cubanfood.org. I can't vouch for how truly "authentic" these are, but they seemed Cuban to me. I'm not sure it's all that important to always be "authentic" anyway. If the food is good, inspiration can come from many places. In any case, I've seen all of these dishes, or something resembling them, on our recent Christmas trip to the island. Plantain popped up here and there.  Our fav chicken dish at the buffet was a sort of roasted chicken not too dissimilar to the below recipe.  Pineapple was common as you might imagine.   I also saw rice pudding, although the one I made is thicker than what we had down south. Finally, the flan I definitely saw, although it was a bit more solid and cut into squares, whereas this one was round, taking the shape of my bundt pan. Interestingly, two of the recipes use orange juice (actually sour orange), and two call for pieces of lemon peel and cinnamon. Prevalent ingredients in Cuban cuisine perhaps.

So on to the dishes.

Fried Plantain. This was actually pretty tasty, if you like plantain. Hot chips well salted, not much more to say. I used Pink Himalayan, mostly because it looks pretty and I had this silly Jamie Oliver plastic grinder to use. Does it taste better? I don't think it is any different. But it contains more trace minerals that are good for you!  Well, perhaps, but not enough to make a whit of difference. Here is one skeptical look at pink salt, and here is a quick run-down of salt difference. It is pretty, however.

Forgot to take a picture again, so here is an image I borrowed from the web
which looked  exactly like how it turned out. Except mine had pretty pink salt. 

Chicken Fricassee.  What is a fricassee anyway? According to wikipedia, it is is a method of cooking meat in which it is cut up, sautéed and braised. According to Martha Stewart, it is half-way between a sauté and a stew. In any case, it seems to be a popular Cuban dish.  There isn't anything that particularly screams "Cuba!" to me, although there are a couple of elements that add some flair such as capers, olives, and cumin. Cooking it longer and slower produced flavourful and tender chicken.

Chicken Fricassee. Honestly, it tasted awesome.
Fall-off-the-bone chicken!

Pineapple and Avocado Salad.  I never would have thought of combining an iceberg lettuce and a whack of pineapple. I didn't see a lettuce and pineapple salad in Cuba, but I would think that is something one might see, since pineapples would be as readily available as apples in Ontario, and both ingredients seemed common if not together. The avocado as a garnish worked really well.  I like how the lettuce was chopped up finely, not in big leaves.

Pineapple and Avocado Salad. Looks like a lot,
but it was for 10 people. 

Rice pudding. I think this was the hit of the evening. Partly because it was awesome, partly because it hit the nostalgic factor for a few. Just a hint of lemon, and a whiff, but not too much, of cinnamon. Some added raisins after the fact, but I didn't cook it with them. I would make this again for sure.

Rice pudding with cinnamon

Flan Cubano. When I think of flans, I think of these horrible (well some like them a lot) flat thin sponge cake things, sometimes custard, sometimes fruit with whipped cream, with lots of fruit with gelatin yuck all over it, like this:

NOT WHAT I MADE!  This is what
I had a lot as a kid, and didn't like. Ick.

This Cuban flan is much better. It is essentially custard with a sticky caramel outside. It was fun but a fair bit of work to make. Making the caramel is not too hard, but it thickens really quickly when it cools and so you have to work fast to coat the bottom and sides of your baking dish. Then there's the fussing with the water bath, etc. But it turned out great, so it was worth it.

Cuban Flan. Here it is in the pan just starting to cool,
before I inverted it on a plate. You can see the delicious
caramel on the sides and on the top (well, bottom I guess).

Next Time:

• for the salad, I would drain the juice and thicken the dressing so it wasn't so liquidy
• for the chicken, I think using bone-in chicken but taking the skin off was a good call. We left the skin on a few pieces for flavour however. I would use really small Parisienne style potatoes, the ones I used took too long to cook.
• for the flan, hmmm. I darkened the caramel a bit too much, although the custard was good.

Me: 9/10

SO: 10/10

SSO: 7/10

Note: all quantities below ended up being enough for 8-10 people. All recipes based on those found on cubanfood.org.

Fried Plantain
Ingredients

• As an appetizer, 3 large plantains worked out nicely
• sea salt, pink Himalayan salt, or any large flake or "weird" salt

Method

1. Slice up the plantain fairly thinly, not more than 1/4". I used a mandolin, so they were even which makes cooking easier.
2. Pour some oil in a pan, just covering the bottom. Cook each side for a minute or so. 
3. Invert to some paper towel, and salt.

Chicken Fricassee
Ingredients

• One "family pack" each of bone-in chicken thighs and chicken legs (about 16 each pack?)
• For marinade: 4 minced garlic cloves, 1/2 cup orange juice, salt & pepper
• 3 or 4 onions, roughly chopped
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 cup large stuffed olives, cut in half
• 2 or 3 bags of those tiny "Parisienne" potatoes
• 1/4 cup capers
• 2 Tbsp oregano leaves
• 3 tsp cumin

Method

1. Marinate the chicken in a large dish or ziplock bags for 2 or 3 hours, turning occasionally.
2. In a large pan,  brown the chicken pieces in oil in batches. Don't cook the chicken through, and don't worry about the brown bits in the pan - it'll be deglazed later. Remove to paper towels.
3. Soften the onion, then add the rest of the ingredients minus the potatoes. Mix well and heat through, and simmer it for 5 minutes.
4. Layer it all up in a large baking dish. Start with spreading the chicken around evenly, then sprinkle the little potatoes and then dump the sauce over everything evenly.  Cook in a 275 deg oven for 2 hours, or until done. Check after an hour.

Pineapple and Avocado Salad
Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• head of iceberg lettuce, wilted bits and inside core removed, and finely shredded
• 2 cups pineapple, 1/2 inch dice, drained
• 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced and then cut in half
• 2 ripe avocados, sliced for garnish
• salt & pepper 

Method

1. Blend the oil, juice, vinegar, and sugar in a small blender or other small kitchen appliance.
2. Mix the lettuce, pineapple, and onion. Add salt & pepper to taste, then dress.
3. Garnish with the avocado slices.

Rice Pudding
Ingredients

• 1 1/2 C of water
• 1/2 C rice
• 1 piece of lemon peel, a 1/4 of an lemon's worth
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 C milk (I used soy milk and it turned out great)
• 1 C sugar
• dash of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• cinnamon and additional cinnamon sticks for garnish if desired

Method

1. In a saucepan, cook the rice in the water with the cinnamon and lemon as you would normally (lid on until fluffy). 
2. Add the milk, sugar, and salt and lower heat to a simmer. Cook for an hour or possibly more, until it thickens to your desired consistency. Stir once in a while so it doesn't stick to the bottom.

Flan Cubano
Ingredients

• 4 egg yolks
• 4 whole eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 piece of lemon peel, about a quarter of a lemon's worth
• 1 cinnamon stick

Method

1. Add the water and half the sugar (3/4 C) to a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat until the water dissolves and the sugar starts to caramelize. Wait until it is a golden brown, then quickly pour into your flan pan (I used a Bundt pan, there are also special "Cuban Flan Pans" with locking lids).  It will cool and harden very fast, so quickly coat the entire bottom and sides by tilting the pan.  Chef Michael Smith has some good advice about caramelizing sugar.
2. Add the milk to another saucepan, and add the lemon and cinnamon stick. Bring it just to a boil over medium heat, stirring often.being careful not to burn it. Remove the lemon and cinnamon, and let cool until close to room temperature.
3. Beat the eggs and egg yolks with the sugar and add the vanilla. Combine with the milk, then strain into the flan pan.
4. Put the flan into a larger baking dish, and fill with an inch or so of water. Here's why we do that for custards. Put in a 350 oven for an hour or so. Once done, let it cool for 15 minutes, then loosen the flan from all edges with a very thin knife, then let it cool further before inverting onto a plate.