When we were much younger my father used to take us frequently to an Argentinian restaurant in Miami, and I think it is here that I learned to love beef. I also learned to love the piquant sauce they put on their meat called Chimichurri. It is a tangy sauce of parsley, garlic, red chili…

When I was much younger and had crushes on boys who didn’t like me, my mom always consoled me by saying “It is better it didn’t work, he wasn’t Cuban, so he wouldn’t understand why you need a pastelito de guayaba.” She was of course kidding but it did, at least on some level, ring…

I complain a lot about living in Seattle. Some of what I whine about is true; the weather sucks, the winter days are nonexistent, everything closes way too damned early and the city feels more like a very large town rather than a “real city”. Most of the time, however, I really just need a…

Nothing says comfort food like mashed potatoes. These are a very simple version I made to go along with the lamb I posted earlier this week. They came out very well and they don’t use all the heavy cream and loads of butter I keep seeing in recipes, and restaurants for that matter. Mashed potatoes…

Ingredients 2.5 -3lbs boneless Leg of Lamb 2 small or one large Onion 10 cloves of garlic 8 oz of Cremini mushrooms 2 tablespoons Dried Chanterelle Mushrooms, or any other good quality dried mushroom 2 Sprigs of Rosemary 6 cups Lamb Stock – beef stock or just plain water will do in a pinch Salt…

Stock was one of those things that took me a very long time to figure out how to make correctly. I would boil the bones for hours and at the end I was left with a very weak stock that made me wonder how it could be any better than water in recipes. I remember…

Mojo is a Cuban marinade and sauce used in many different ways. From Chicken marinated in mojo and grilled, to pork marinated and cooked in mojo at Christmas; as a salad dressing, or as a sauce for fried yuca. It’s uses in the Cuban kitchen are endless. Actually, when I stop and think about it,…

I am proud to say that this is my signature dish and a favorite of all my friends and family who usually ask for it specifically, by name, when I suggest dinner at our place. It is, at its essense, Cuban comfort food. Every Cuban household makes this dish and we all do it a little…

My father loved going out to eat, so about once or twice a week we would go out as a family. I think for him there was no greater outing. He had his favorite restaurants, most of them Cuban, and he preferred to go to the same ones often. Of all the restaurants none was…

Shepherds pie is one of those comfort meals that sticks to your ribs and warms your cockles. The recipe usually has a lot of fat and a lot of potatoes and tastes just divine. However, we were told we needed to get more fruit and veg into the old diet, so I have been slowly…

  I love my tomato soup tangy, thick, blended but with texture and with just a hint of cream. Tomato soup should be tangy enough to hit you in the salivary glands and creamy enough to be luxurious. I wasn’t finding this in the store bought and restaurant soups so I decided to create the…