Ropa vieja recipe

Beef simmered whole, torn into long threads like old rags, then finished in a sofrito sauce sharpened with green olives, capers and dry Cuban cooking wine.

3 hours and 10 minutesmedium12 ingredients

Ingredients

• 800 g flank steak
• 80 g green olives
• 2 tbsp capers
• 120 ml dry white cooking wine
• 2 onions
• 1 green bell pepper
• 4 clove garlic
• 400 g tomato sauce
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 tbsp olive oil

How to make Ropa vieja

1. Simmer 800 g flank steak in 1.5 L water with half an onion and 1 bay leaf for 2 hours, until a fork pulls it apart; keep 500 ml of the broth.
2. Lift the meat out, let it cool a little, then shred it along the grain into long threads. The name means old clothes, so the strands are the dish.
3. Heat 3 tbsp olive oil and cook 1 sliced onion with 1 sliced green bell pepper for 8 minutes, then add 4 minced garlic cloves for 1 minute.
4. Stir in 400 g tomato sauce, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp oregano, 1 bay leaf and 120 ml dry white cooking wine, and let it bubble 5 minutes.
5. Return the shredded beef with the 500 ml reserved broth and simmer uncovered 30 minutes, until the sauce clings to the threads instead of pooling.
6. Add 80 g sliced green olives and 2 tbsp capers only in the last 5 minutes, so they stay briny and firm.
7. Taste for salt, remembering the olives already carry plenty, and fish out the bay leaves.
8. Serve with white rice, black beans and fried plantains.

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