Viva Cuba!

There's nothing like a good ropa vieja on a cool evening, especially when accompanied by just-baked Cuban bread. We made the ropa vieja on Saturday while rotisserie cooking a chicken on our grill. We planned to have the ropa on Sunday but got distracted by a wonderful fried catfish lunch at Stumpknockers restaurant in Ocala. We were just too full for supper.  Fortunately for us, ropa vieja gets better as it ages.

The recipe came from Memories Of A Cuban Kitchen by Mary Urrutia Randelman and turned out spectacularly. We'll be having the remains for supper tonight. We served the ropa vieja over white rice and accompanied it with slices of that fresh-baked Cuban bread. While the photo shows two slices of bread, we must admit that the loaf was looking rather small by the time supper was finished.  The only thing that could possibly have improved the meal would have been some Cuban flan for dessert. Sadly, working full time doesn't allow for spontaneous flan creation!

By the way, check out our wicked cool Shun serrated bread knife in the top image. Julie gave this knife to Bob last year and he grooves on how easily it slices the hardest artisanal bread crusts... while this loaf had a thin, crackly crust that wasn't hard to cut, the Shun still did a great job. Bob would be lost without his trusty Shun. Too bad they're so expensive, as Bob dreams of slowly replacing his Globals with Shuns.