Second Recipe -- Bistec a la Criolla

First I want to thank everyone who posted on the beans!!! It was extremely helpful and I will be taking ALL advice into consideration. Also thank you to the two comments on the tomatillos!!!! Love the help. It is greatly needed

As for the Pierogi question -- I passed that along to my mom and she will be getting back to you with some advice for the dough....I am definitely not the person to ask for cooking advice (unless you want a new kitchen ... LOL)

OK for my second recipe it comes from Colombia and from the cookbook "Secrets of Colombian Cooking" by Patricia McCausland - Gallo. It was an awesome recipe and easy to follow. I will let you know what I did and what the ingredients are....

FYI it is a long list of ingredients and I did get a little bit intimidated -- but don't let it scare you....If I can do it you definitely can too :)

For anyone that doesn't read Spanish -- it translates into Creole Beefsteak.

Ingredients:

3lbs skirt steak
2 tablespoons of oil
2 tablespoons of prepared mustard
2 cloves of garlic
2 whole bay leaves
1 tablespoon minced cilantro
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (could not find so I improvised with regular cumin spice)
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Hogao del Caribe = tomato and onion sauce

4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 1/2 diced onion
1 cup peeled and diced tomatoes, seeds included (I again improvised and used the canned stuff)
2 tablespoons of aji (sweet green pepper) used a regular green pepper
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons of cilantro
1 tablespoon of chopped scallion
1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of sugar (left this out)
1/4 teaspoon of pepper

Outstanding:

1. I placed the beef in a nonreactive container and because I did not realize I had to leave the rub on overnight -- I did it for two hours. It worked -- we had no complaints -- however -- the taste would probably have been more flavorful if we put it on overnight.

The rub included the oil, mustard, garlic, bay leaves, cilantro, cumin and pepper.

2. After leaving the rub on for two hours I sauteed the beef.

Since I have no skills doing that simultaneously, my husband worked on the sauce. He cooked the onions first and then added the everything else...he cooked for about six minutes and then he simmered it while he was waiting for me to finish with the beef.

We served it over rice but you could probably serve it with any type of starch, potato, yucca etc.

This was a four star recipe and I give the author major points for letting me cook such a superb meal. If anyone cooks this let me know how it comes out --- good luck :)

The First Recipe -- Frijoles con Carne

Pork and Beans

I am going to have to take photographs of my food -- I am not sure I cooked this right but it sure didn't taste like I did. I thought I picked a simple recipe but apparently it wasn't.

I got this recipe from the cookbook "False Tongues and Sunday Bread" by Copeland Marks.

It is a Guatemalan dish....

The cookbook said I needed:

1lb of dried small red beans

6 cups of water

1 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup of tomatillos

2 small ripe tomatoes peeled

2 garlic cloves peeled

1 pound of pork, cut into 1 -inch cubes.

I needed to soak the beans in 3 cups of water for four hours and then cook the beans for one hour. I did this but the beans were really hard like rocks -- so I am not sure I did this correctly....instead I had to improvise and use canned red beans....with my kitchen full of smoke -- my husband did a pantry run and searched through our pantry until coming up with some beans --whew crisis sort of averted.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to cook beans I will take the advice.

Next I had to toast the tomatillos, garlic and onion in a dry skillet over moderate to low heat and then process into a smooth paste -- okay -- I went to THREE grocery stores and could not find one with tomatillos....I did however find a tomatillo sauce -- so I improvised here as well.

Also instead of using two small ripe tomatoes peeled I used a can of peeled tomatoes -- not a good idea.

I cooked the pork, as told, for one hour in three cups of water -- I did fabulous with this and can actually say the pork came out very good.

I then added the sauce to the pork.

My problem: The tomatillo sauce (I added too much) and I didn't know ratio of the tomatillo sauce I had to use compared to the regular tomatillo. I also should have used regular tomatoes instead of the canned tomatoes. This led to the dish being extremely acidic tasting and gave my family reflux for the entire evening...including my children....any suggestions on how to cut the acidity would be greatly appreciated.

Please note: My mother did not help me with this one but I could have greatly used some.

http://www.guatemala-times.com/

How This Came About

My two children are adopted. My son is from Guatemala and my daughter is from Colombia. My husband, although not adopted, was born in Poland and came to the United States as a child. Therefore, I have a lot of new cooking to do.

As many of my close friends and family members know, I cannot cook. I have trouble making sunny side up eggs. So to incorporate my families' foods I needed help and I still do.

I have ordered several cookbooks regarding Guatemalan, Colombian and Polish cooking. I am posting the recipes here and I am also posting how I cooked it and how it tastes. Either someone may want to write down the recipe for their own use or help me effectively execute my endeavors.

Please feedback is necessary to successfully complete my dinners!!!! FYI -- I will be cooking one ethnic dish a week and my mom -- who is a great cook -- will be helping.