La Cocina de Christina on the TODAY Show #VivaToday

As part of NBC and Telemundo's Viva Today series, we had a chance to be featured on this morning's TODAY Show.  Last week, we sat down with Chef Ingrid Hoffmann to cook through some of the recipes from my Cuban cooking project, and to talk about food and the power it has to keep traditions alive, for many generations.  Watch the video below to see the feature that aired today on TODAY.

Keeping the sofrito smell alive is the key to La Cocina de Christina.  Having a home that smells like abuela or mami's cooking can't be replaced.  And when you step out of that home, into the world, that sofrito smell carries along with you.  And people just know - they know you come from a home where people cook and care and love.

Thanks for staying connected to La Cocina de Christina as I continue to cook through Cocina al Minuto. Helping so many connect to their culture and traditions has been a real treat.  I look forward to the next half of the project!

La Cocina de Christina : Memories of Abuela Teresa

Abuela Teresa, Christina's Great-grandmother, December 1966, Miami, Florida

My paternal great-grandmother, Abuela Teresa, was born in 1898 in Spain.  Growing up, that was the absolute coolest thing - knowing someone that was born in the 1800s.  She was barely 4'8" but had the character the size of a giant's.  The myths and legends about La Abuela Teresa were monumental.

She could always be found in one of two places - first place, the kitchen.  When someone would come to the house, you'd find her making Cuban coffee, right as the guest was walking up to the door.  She'd make croquetas with her hand-cranking meat grinder from leftovers, regardless of what the leftovers would be.  She'd have pimento cheese spread on-hand and all other sorts of goodies ready.  Just ready.

If she wasn't in the kitchen, she was knitting.  It was probably crochet that she was doing but I never know the difference between crochet, knitting and bordando.  She did that too, I'd say.  Scraps of fabrics, yarnballs all over her bed and her knitting needles, working away.

As I was getting ready to put together some old photos I've taken throughout this journey for The Project, I came across the photo at the top of this post.

So many thoughts come to mind when I see that photo above.  Maybe she was about to yell at one of us for running around the house like crazies.  Maybe she was showing off the pot before making some amazing potaje.  Maybe she was about to send someone to go fly a kite for taking a photo of her.

As her grandson, my Dad, always says, "Let us count the possibilities."

 

317 : Bocaditos Tostados de Bonito y Queso

Ingredients:
2 cans bonito in olive oil
4 hard boiled eggs
1/2 cup olives stuffed with pimentos
1 small onion
2/3 cup mayonnaise
2 Tablespoons butter
24 slices white bread
5oz pimento cheese spread
1/4 lb butter

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Slice the olives, drain the oil from the bonito and shred the bonito, chop the eggs, chop the onion and mix with the mayonnaise.


3. Slice the crusts off the bread.


4. Spread the 2T butter (at room temperature) on 12 slices of bread.

5. Top the buttered slices with the bonito mix.


6. Mix the pimento cheese spread with the 1/4lb butter (at room temperature) in a bowl.


7. Place the 12 remaining bread slices on top of each of the slices with bonito, to make 12 sandwiches (bocaditos).

8. Spread the bocadito tops with the butter pimento cheese mix.


9. Bake the bocaditos in the oven for 10 minutes, until the cheese on top is golden and bubbly.


Cut into triangles and serve warm. Makes 24 triangles.


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316 : Langosta con Queso

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons oil
1/2 cup green pepper, chopped
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 cup Gouda cheese, shredded
1 Tablespoon mustard
1 cup lobster meat, chopped
1 1/2 cups tomato, chopped (including juice and seeds)
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon dry cooking wine

1. Melt the butter, add the oil and fry the pepper and onion in a large pan.


2. In a blender, mix the flour, mustard, milk and cheese.


3. Add the blended ingredients to the pepper and onion and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until sauce thickens.


4. Add the tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, salt and cooking wine.


5. Put all ingredients in the pan back in the blender and purée well.

6. Add the ingredients from the blender back into the pan and add the lobster meat.


7. Bring the heat up, but do not boil, until lobster is cooked through (pink and opaque).

8. Remove from heat and serve hot.



Can be served over Killer Rice, alongside sliced avocado, drizzled with olive oil, lime and salt.

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Chicken Soup for the Cubanito's Stomach Bug

My son has a stomach virus. And he wanted Mami's chicken noodle soup. Except, Mami doesn't have a chicken noodle soup. Until now. Let's see if I can pull this off.

Ingredients:
3 lb chicken wings, drums or whole chicken
12 cups water
2 cups baby carrots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 packet Sazón Goya con Azafran
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1 Tablespoon salt
1/2 lb short pasta (angel hair or fideos work best)

1. Place the chicken in a pressure cooker with the water.



2. Add the carrots and garlic.



3. Add the contents of one packet of Sazón.



4. Add the oregano.



5. Add the salt.



6. Cover pressure cooker and cook for 30 minutes (from the moment the pressure sets).

7. Once the safety pin has dropped, open the pressure cooker. Remove the chicken and bring the broth to a boil.



8. Add the pasta, making sure to break it down to fit easily on the spoon later. Cook for 10 minutes on boil.



9. Shred the chicken, removing all skin and bones, while the pasta cooks, and add the chicken into the pot.



10. Lower heat and serve immediately.




Success! The soup was delicious. My son ate it cautiously but gave praises on the taste along the way. Now hopefully, he can keep it down for the night.

How do you make your Sopa de Pollo?

314 : Pierna de Puerco Asado a la Criolla

Ingredients:




6 lbs fresh ham shank (Pierna de Puerco or Pierna de Cerdo)
1 whole garlic
2 Tablespoons salt
1 Tablespoon oregano
2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 cup juice from fresh sour oranges
1 pound white onions

1. Make sure the pork you buy is trimmed of any overly excessive fat but still has the skin intact, as the skin crisps during cooking to form a chicharrón (crackling).

2. Place pork inside a large turkey bag. Bag will be used during marination process, not during cooking.

3. Cut slits in the pork with a sharp knife, on both sides of the pork.



4. Using a mortar and pestle, crush all the garlic cloves.

5. Add the salt to the garlic and crush well, ending up with a paste-like consistency.

6. Add the oregano, cumin and black pepper, pausing between each spice to fully incorporate each one into the mix.



7. Pour the spice-paste into the sour orange juice and mix well, to create your mojo. Let it sit while you do step #8.



8. Slice up the onions into rings.

9. Rub the mojo, with your hands, all over both sides of the pork, making sure you get the juices and paste into all crevices. Pour any leftover liquid over the top of both sides and rub well with your hands.



10. Place the onion rings over, under and inside the pork. The littlest circles from the rings fit perfectly into the slits in the pork. Close up the bag and put away for 48-72 hours. Turn bag over after each 24 hours so that juices can cover all parts of the pork during marination.



11. When ready to cook, heat oven to 325 degrees and remove pork from bag, into a large roaster. Pour all juices from bag over the pork, into the roaster.



12. Cook for four hours. Check temperature using a meat thermometer. Pork is ready once the thermometer reads 185 degrees.



13. Slice and serve with black beans and rice, using the excess onions and salsita (sauce) as a dressing for the rice. Can also be served inside Cuban bread as a sandwich, in a Pan con Lechon, with the onions and salsita as a condiment for the sandwich.



Enjoy - and sop up any leftover salsita with extra Cuban bread.

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American Lobster | Langosta a la Americana

Nitza has a bunch of lobster recipes to go through and I started with Langosta a la Americana. The flavors are quite complex, using Salsa Marinara and Salsa Española Rápida as the base. I had already made the Marinara Sauce a while back, but getting to knock out two recipes in one with the Española Sauce made this an attractive one to try.

I used lobster tails in the recipe, which made everything easier. The best part was seeing the tail turn a gorgeous red as it simmered in the sauce. Very pretty.



It was a sign of the deep flavors to come once the dish was ready, served atop Killer Rice.




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311 : Langosta a la Americana

Ingredients



2 cups Marinara Sauce
1/2 cup Salsa Española Rápida
4 Tablespoons butter
1 small yellow onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 bay leaf
3/4 cup cooking wine
6 lobster tails

1. Melt the butter and fry the chopped onion in a pot.



2. Add the bay leaf and shell from one of the lobster tails.



3. Add 1/4 cup of the cooking wine.

4. Add the two sauces and cook over low heat for 30 minutes.



5. Remove the meat from the tails and chop into bite-sized pieces.

6. In a separate pot, cook the lobster meat with 1/2 cup of the cooking wine for about 10 minutes.



7. Strain the sauce (or just remove the lobster shell and bay leaf if you want it with a thicker texture) and incorporate the lobsters and cooking wine.



8. Simmer for ten minutes.

Serve warm over killer rice.




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310 : Salsa Española Rápida

Ingredients


2 teaspoons butter
1 Tablespoon flour
1 cup consommé (beef broth), canned
1 bay leaf
2 Tablespoons cooking wine
1/4 teaspoon Kitchen Bouquet

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepot.

2. Dissolve the flour in the beef broth and add to the melted butter in the pot.



3. Add the bay leaf and stir for two minutes.


4. Add the cooking wine and Kitchen Bouquet and bring back up to a boil.


5. Lower heat and keep warm until ready to use.


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Ham Surprise | Sorpresas de Jamón

Any recipe that has "sorpresa" or "surprise" in the title is usually a sign of strangeness. My cousin, Georgette, has a signature dish, Spaghetti-O Surprise. I've never had it, I'm not sure if anyone besides her husband, Carlos, has had it, actually. But it is legendary since that's the only dish Georgette has made at home. I think she made it for him while they were dating.

There always seems to be a bit of folklore and embellishment in Surprise Dishes. This dish, on the other hand, is just plain out of this world. I used Honey Baked Ham because we had leftovers from Thanksgiving. That sweet ham, plus the little soufflé that tops each serving, is just insane. And easy. Perfect for a party. Maybe a surprise party.




Click here for the full recipe.

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