We've fielded several calls from Indiana -- a place where people are not very familiar with Cuban cuisine! So the Super Bowl has been a great opportunity to spread the word about Cuban culture and food.
Jorge Castillo and Glenn Lindgren taped a segment for “All Things Considered” the last time the Super Bowl was in Miami in 2007. Listen in as we talk about picadillo -- our suggestion for anyone who wants to add a little Cuban “soul food” to their Super Bowl party.
Listen to our original broadcast here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7131708
The link also takes you to a page with our picadillo recipe.
Spice Up Your Super Bowl Party
Everyone Wants to Cook Cuban this Year for a Great Miami-themed Super Bowl Party!
Why settle for frozen chicken strips when you can make these delicious Miami Cuban treats?
6 cloves garlic, mashed
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 cup fresh lime juice
- 1⁄2 cup light rum
- 11⁄2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut in strips
- Salt
- Pepper
- Cumin
- Oregano, ground
- Vegetable oil for frying
- 1 cup flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons black pepper
- 1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons water
- 1 cup fresh lime juice
1. Make a marinade with the garlic, onion, lime juice, and rum.
2. Arrange the chicken pieces in a shallow glass baking pan. Pour the marinade over the chicken pieces and mix them up so that all of the pieces are well coated. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 2 to 3 hours.
3. After marinating, season the chicken pieces on the top layer by eye with salt, pepper, cumin, and oregano. TIP: Use a mortar and pestle to finely grind the oregano.
4. Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet, deep enough to cover half the thickness of the chicken at one time.
5. Mix the flour with the salt and pepper and place in a shallow pan. Make an egg wash by beating a whole egg with a little water.
6. Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade (shaking off some of the excess marinade), dip each piece in the egg wash, and dredge in the seasoned flour mixture. (As you work down a layer, re-season the newly exposed layer with more salt, pepper, oregano, and cumin.)
7. Fry the chicken pieces, in small batches—don’t crowd the pan—until all sides are golden brown and the chicken is completely cooked through.
8. Serve with cooked white rice.
Serves 4
From the book: "Three Guys From Miami Celebrate Cuban" Copyright 2006
OK, they're really Cuban. However, we have simplified the recipe so that anyone (even in Indiana) can make these great sandwiches simply with common ingredients found just about everywhere.
- Cuban bread (or substitute French bread, but NOT a baguette!)
- Butter, softened
- Dill pickles, sliced
- 1 pound deli pork roast, sliced
- Fresh lime juice
- Salt to taste
- Garlic powder to taste
- 1 pound good quality ham, sliced
- 1/2 pound Swiss cheese, sliced (use a mild Swiss—baby Swiss is a good choice, it has only a few holes)
- Yellow mustard (optional)
- Mayonnaise (optional)
- Butter, softened
1. Preheat a griddle or large sauté pan. Cut the bread into sections about 8 inches long. Cut these in half and spread butter on both halves (inside). Make each sandwich with the ingredients in this order: pickles, roasted pork, ham, and cheese. Be generous! Note: Sprinkle the pork layer with some fresh lime juice and season with a little salt and garlic powder.
2. Place the sandwich on a lightly greased hot griddle or sauté pan. Place a heavy iron skillet or bacon press on top of the sandwich to flatten. Put a little muscle into it! You really want to smash the sandwich, compressing the bread to about a third of its original size!
3. Grill the sandwiches for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until the cheese melts and the bread is golden. Make sure your griddle or sauté pan is not too hot. Otherwise, the crust will burn before the cheese melts. Slice the sandwich in half diagonally and serve.
1. TIP: Let your meats and cheese come to room temperature. This way you avoid burning the bread, and the cheese melts perfectly! Using mustard or mayonnaise on a Cuban sandwich is a personal choice. We find that the best Cuban sandwiches don’t need either ingredient. The butter, natural meat juices, and yes—even the pickle juice gives it all of the moistness and flavor it needs.
Makes 4 large sandwiches
From the book: "Three Guys From Miami Cook Cuban" Copyright 2004
Sopa de Crema de Queso is made with a cheese that is very popular in Cuba: Gouda cheese, awonderfully tasting mild cheese that melts easily and makes a deliciously rich soup. Serve your Super Bowl guests a cup of this great soup topped with popcorn -- you can even dip a tortilla chip!
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 teaspoons finely minced onion
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1⁄2 cup chicken broth
- 11⁄2 cups milk at room temperature
- 6 ounces grated Gouda cheese
- 1 cup heavy cream
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 teaspoons finely minced onion
1. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the onion and garlic and sauté briefly over medium-low heat. (You need just a small clove, about 1⁄2 teaspoon minced.)
2. Next, quickly stir in the flour to make a paste. Add the chicken broth, whisking vigorously to avoid any lumps.
3. Continue whisking and quickly add the milk. Bring almost to a boil, stirring constantly.
4. Add the cheese and use a spoon to continue stirring until the cheese melts completely and blends into the soup.
5. Reduce heat to low and stir in the cream. Let the soup come back up to serving temperature, however do not let it boil! Salt and pepper to taste.
6. Serve hot with plenty of fresh bread -- Cuban if you can find some!
Serves 4
From the book: "Three Guys From Miami Celebrate Cuban" Copyright 2006
(Before or After the Game)
You can't come to Miami without enjoying the beach. We realize that the beaches are probably Miami's number one attraction. Miami Beach, and in particular South Beach, offers a unique combination of swimming, sunbathing, entertainment, dining, exercise, and people watching. Come during the day for swimming and sunbathing. Come at night for restaurants, clubs, and more people watching...
2. Venetian Pool
Summers in Miami can be very, very hot! In July and August especially, the beaches are packed. Everybody enjoys the beach in summer. But the water is so warm -- like bath water! You just don't feel refreshed. There is a great place to cool off in Miami, there's a great pool where the water is served well chilled. We're not talking about some boring hotel pool. No this one was created from a huge rock quarry and is fed by a natural spring. Got your interest yet? Read on...
3. Lincoln Road Mall
Want to combine great shopping with your beach experience? We rarely make a trip to South Beach without stopping at this unique mall. Not the big box you're thinking of, but a beautiful tree-lined street about 10 blocks long with numerous outdoor cafés, boutiques and art galleries. It's full of the art deco architecture that has made Miami famous...
4. Coral Gables
Coming to Miami but you don't want to spend all of your time at the beach? Get away from all of the hustle and bustle of South Beach in Coral Gables. This urban oasis features beautiful tree-lined streets, historic homes, an historic hotel, and three golf courses in the middle of a large metropolis. After the craziness of Bird Road, you'll be amazed at this peaceful neighborhood...
5. Viscaya
There are many great mansions in Miami: Gloria Estefan, the Bee Gees, Rosie O'Donnell, Julio Iglesias, and Madonna -- just to name a few -- have beautiful ocean side estates. There are several tour boats that can take you past these beautiful homes. However, there aren't any tours that let you go inside them. So you can only imagine what's happening inside. However, there is a place where you can tour the inside of a great Miami mansion...
6. Little Havana
The best way to see Little Havana? Why not start with breakfast or lunch in one of many excellent restaurants? Then you can walk and drive around and visit nearby places -- Domino Park, the art galleries, souvenir stores, or a cigar factory. Over the years Calle Ocho has seen an influx of other Latin cultures. Visit this quaint street for a truly pan-Latin experience!
7. Fairchild Tropical Gardens and 8. Fruit and Spice Park
They say that everyone has a green thumb in Miami. Stick just about anything in the ground and in a week or two you have a giant leafy green thing growing in the backyard. Miami has a wide variety of tropical and semi-tropical plants. If you don't know a Mangifera indica (mango) from a Hevea brasiliensis (rubber tree), why not visit a place where they have people who can set you straight? In no time, you too can be a tropical plant expert.
9. Homestead, Florida City, and The Redland District
The far southern end of Krome Avenue passes through a part of Dade County known as the Redland District. Here you'll find several interesting sites worth a visit, from a tropical fruit winery, to a historic village, to an orchid ranch. Once you get to Homestead and nearby Florida City, you'll discover Mexican restaurants and a huge Mexican flea market.
10. Bird Road Art District
If you ask most people in Miami to take you to the Bird Road Art District, about nine in ten will just give you a puzzled look, shrug their shoulders, and walk on. The area, both formerly and currently home to many warehouses, started attracting artists and later galleries in the 1980s. By 2000, the concentration of artistic pursuits led to the area's official designation by Dade County.
Here are 10 great attractions to take your mind off of football!
La Carreta on Bird Road
When the sun goes down and fresh ocean breezes temper the Miami heat, people flock to La Carreta’s outside café window. On a normal night, there is always a lively crowd engaged in the favorite pastime of all Cubans, talking! Discover a microcosm of Miami culture: older people discussing politics, police officers on break, younger men and women on their way to an evening of dancing or returning from the same, middle-aged bikers on Harleys, and the full spectrum of Miami characters: Cuban, Latin American, and Anglo alike. Walk in past La Carreta’s coffee window on a busy Saturday night and you enter a cavernous space filled with large tables and the buzz of a hundred conversations, punctuated by the clinking of glassware as huge Cuban country-style meals are delivered by oh-so-polite and flirtatious older waitresses.
(more)
Versailles
When Cubans gather for café, it always comes with conversation, debate, and humor. Pass by Versailles at any time of day and see a small crowd milling around the coffee window, sipping the hot brew from tiny white cups and pontificating on national and world events. So much happens in the parking lot and along the sidewalk in front of Versailles; it is easy to forget about the food available inside. Pass through the front door and a maître d’ who has been working here so long he may have helped build the place will greet you. Versailles has always maintained one of the largest Cuban food menus of any restaurant in the United States. The sheer diversity of this large menu keeps the kitchen hopping. If they do not have it on the menu, it is probably not Cuban food! For Cubans who have long since left Miami, a vacation here is unthinkable without at least one meal at Versailles.
(more)
El Rey de las Fritas
Here the frita is truly king and during the rush, the cook keeps the small grill covered with sizzling patties in various states of readiness. Select a stool and eat in or order “para llevar” at the cash register or walk-up window: a roving waitress will take your order. Do not let the preponderance of spoken Spanish intimidate you; ordering is easy from the backlit menu board complete with pictures of every dish. The din of a dozen conversations competes with the calling out of the orders. The scent of the heavenly patties and onions hitting the hot grill top fills the room. Whether you eat yours “straight up” or draped with a slice of decidedly American cheese, the frita seems to disappear magically from your plate. Those in the know make a dessert out of the buñuelos, impossibly light pastries with a hint of anise.
(more)
The Palace of Juices
Many visitors to Miami know little about Cuban cuisine; most frequently believing that Cuban food is not far removed from the Tex-Mex cooking they enjoy back home, and then disappointed to find nary a taco or burrito on the menu. Here at the Palace you can learn everything you need to know about Cuban food in just one place, the heart and soul of Cuban cooking at a simple, neighborhood fruit and vegetable market. At the Palace of Juices, the juices are just-squeezed fresh and delectable, but don’t miss the smorgasbord of Cuban culinary delights that abound here. Great sandwiches, chicharrones, masitas, and plate specials: solid, country-style Cuban meals, such as picadillo, with ground beef, tomato, onions, green peppers and spices, or vaca frita, tender beef shredded, fried, and bathed in a rich tomato-based sauce. At “El Segundo” in Westchester, they have their own version of Mr. Clean: a bare-pated gentleman in a white shirt and black vest who does nothing all day but assemble the pantheon of Cuban sandwiches to order from his perch in the middle of the store.
(more)
Islas Canarias Restaurant
You will find traditional Cuban fare at Islas Canarias in a location that is typical of most Miami restaurants: buried in a strip mall. Lose the attitude, relax, and enjoy some great Cuban food. Start you meal with an order of fried yuca with cilantro sauce, then sample specialties such as tortilla española, or lacón con papa, a delectable ham hock and boiled potato dish seldom seen on Miami menus. The rueda de serrucho, fried King fish steak, is not to be missed.
(more)
Las Vegas Restaurant
If you are staying in South Beach, the best Cuban restaurant withing short traveling distance is the Las Vegas. So good, that some spending the week at an area beach hotel eat here daily. With an ever-changing lineup of lunch specials, it is a strategy that is not as dull as it seems. We remember one memorable evening when we ordered the signature appetizer plate and ate so many papa rellenos, empanadas, tamales, croquetas, yuca, and plátanos we skipped the entrée and moved right to dessert. Go easy on the appetizers and save room for a delicious churrasco y camarones, the Las Vegas version of surf and turf. Las Vegas serves big-plated, down-to-earth Cuban that most places south of 30th Street can’t seem to deliver without a lot of pomp and inflated prices.
Open: Monday through Saturday 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.| Sunday 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Price: Low to moderate
Dress: Casual
- 6970 Collins Avenue
- Miami, Florida 33141
- 305-864-1509
- Miami, Florida 33141
Listen people! You can eat that kind of food at home. When you come to Miami, why not break out of your shell?
Get off of "The Beach" and get a real taste of Miami with these six dining gems.
More than 100 Recipes!
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Two great Miami Cuban cookbooks!
Capture the Cuban Flavor of Miami.
Great Recipes for Your Super Bowl Party!
