Monthly Archives: July 2010

Arroz a la Cubana (Warning: not a real recipe)

This is my go-to meal. When I haven’t planned anything, haven’t had time to grocery shop, or my husband is out and for some reason I’m eating alone, this is what I make. We ate it a lot in Spain growing up. And it’s not a real recipe. Which is exactly what makes it so fast and easy! Here goes:

Ingredients

(Serves 1, easy to multiply)

Cooked white rice

1 generous dollop of spaghetti sauce, heated up

2 fried eggs

Salt and pepper to taste

Assemble into a bowl like this: rice. Heated spaghetti sauce. Eggs. Salt and pepper. If your eggs are overeasy, you can break the yolks and mix together. Eat! You’ll never go back. Or else, you’ll be revolted and never make it again. Either way, the word “never” will figure prominently in your response.

You could make a beautiful stack, using a ramekin to mold the rice into a cup shape on the plate and artfully drizzling the spaghetti sauce in a criss-cross pattern, with the egg balanced on top like a glowing yellow dome in the afternoon sunlight.

But as for me . . . I will continue to simply pile it into the bowl with no regard for aesthetics. Honestly–I think it actually tastes better this way. Some day I will do a blind taste test and prove it to the world.

I’ve wondered for years if I only like this because I grew up with it … or if I like it because it’s actually good. I’d also like to point out that there is probably nothing Cuban about this dish. It’s “Cuban” Rice just as French Toast is “French”, i.e., not at all.

For those of you who like to fancify things, you can make your own tomato sauce and add some chopped chives on top for color. Or chiffonade some basil or something.

Next week I will be posting a more real recipe. But in the meantime, have a great 4th of July weekend!

 

Click here for printer-friendly version: Arroz a la Cubana

The eliminated contestants

During the many months I thought about starting a blog, I took pictures of and took notes on everything I made, thinking I could use them to slam out recipe posts one after the other. My plan was to load up an arsenal so that I could become some kind of blogging/cooking machine. A triumphant warlord of the internet, type of thing. I also reasoned that the more of a backlog I built, the less stressed the future blog could potentially make me. It was a good plan. I smiled benevolently on my carefully planned life trajectory.

Then I encountered a hitch in the plan, and grimaced horribly: the recipes weren’t good enough. They were certainly acceptable for a weeknight dinner, but I had no plans to make any of them again. Except for maybe the peppercorn thingy, but I’m still thinking about that one.

Let’s be honest: the internet is already swamped with cookery information, and I did not want to add any second-rate recipes to the ranks. Who wants a so-so recipe when they have millions of choices at the click of a mouse? The mere thought that I could be the culprit of someone’s mediocre dining experience practically put me into a rabid fit (frothing at the mouth, frothing at the eyes, biting innocent people and whatnot). 

Measures needed to be taken fast, so I did the only thing I could, and I dropped ‘em like a hot potater. “Chalk it up to experience,” I said to myself, “takes one to know one. Don’t take no wooden nickels. Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” With these words of wisdom, I knew: it was all going to be OK.

Here is a little collage of the meals that were violently severed from the line-up. Sorry girls–you were beautiful, but not tasty enough. Now wave politely, and say your goodbyes:

 

Onion/Tomato/Egg Fried Rice: “I’d just like to thank everyone for letting me appear briefly on this blog, and if you allow me one more chance to prove myself …”

I don’t think so, Onion/Tomato/Egg Fried Rice, since our relationship was just one big letdown. It’s best if we both move on and pursue our separate dreams.

Goodbye braised lamb . . . goodbye Mexican rice . . . goodbye peanuty beef and basil thingy . . . goodbye strawberry clafoutis . . . I wish you all well, and I bear you no hard feelings . . .

As the recipes file out for their last hurrah, I’d like to announce that tomorrow I will be posting the one old favorite that I adore so much I make it about once a week. It’s a stand in for desperate times when the refrigerator is empty, or when the thought of chopping and frying and braising makes me want to go hibernate for a month. In other words, it’s not actually a real recipe. Hence its continued success in my life. Will you love it? Will you hate it? Weigh in tomorrow with your feedback. I embrace all comments as equal–it’s part of my loving nature. But if you hate it–break it to me gently, OK?