Ropa vieja recipe

Beef flank poached whole, torn into threads and then simmered back into its own broth with a culantro sofrito.

3 hoursmedium12 ingredients

Ingredients

• 1000 g beef flank
• 8 culantro
• 2 onions
• 1 green bell pepper
• 4 clove garlic
• 3 tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp oregano
• 400 g white rice
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp oil

How to make Ropa vieja

1. Simmer 1 kg of beef flank whole in water with 1 halved onion, 2 bay leaves, 4 culantro leaves and 2 tsp salt for 2 hours, until a fork pulls it apart. Keep the broth; the dish is built on it.
2. Lift the meat out, let it cool enough to handle and shred it along the grain into fine threads. Shredding before the sauce, not after, is what gives ropa vieja its rag-like texture.
3. Strain the broth and set 500 ml aside.
4. Make the sofrito: fry 1 chopped onion and 1 chopped green bell pepper in 2 tbsp oil for 8 minutes, then add 4 minced garlic cloves and cook 1 minute more.
5. Add 3 grated tomatoes, 2 tbsp tomato paste and 1 tsp dried oregano and cook 10 minutes until the sofrito darkens.
6. Return the shredded beef with the 500 ml of reserved broth and simmer uncovered 25 minutes, until the sauce clings to the strands rather than pooling.
7. Chop the remaining 4 culantro leaves in at the very end and check the salt.
8. Serve over 400 g of white rice, with fried ripe plantain.

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