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Summary
Summary
Cuba! explores the magic of this vibrant country through more than 75 recipes that will set taste buds on fire and stories that will delight even the most well-seasoned traveler.
Brazen, bold, and colorful, Cuba is a country that pulses with life. Fascinated by its people and their endlessly delicious home-cooked cuisine, friends Dan Goldberg and Andrea Kuhn have been visiting this magnetic country, capturing its passion and vibrancy, for the past five years. Dan, an award-winning photographer and Andrea, an acclaimed prop stylist and art director, along with renowned food writer Jody Eddy, bring the best of Cuban food to home kitchens with more than 75 meticulously tested recipes. From Cuban-Style Fried Chicken and Tostones Stuffed with Lobster and Conch, to Squid-ink Empanadas and Mojito Cake with Rum-Infused Whipped Cream, this book offers a unique opportunity to bring a little slice of Cuba into your home and onto your plate.
Author Notes
Dan Goldberg is an award-winning commercial photographer specializing in food photography. His work has been recognized by the London International Advertising Awards and he's been listed as Archive 's Best 200 Advertising Photographers. When not taking photographs, you can find him seeking out the best food and drink in town, fly-fishing, and traveling the world with his wife, Casey and daughter, Dylan.
Prop stylist and art director, Andrea Kuhn 's work has appeared in national magazines and ad campaigns, as well as numerous cookbooks, including The Girl in the Kitchen , the James Beard-nominated Spiaggia , Cookie Love and Fat Rice. When not on set, you can find Andrea perusing flea markets (near and far) looking for that perfect prop, enjoying a good cup of coffee, and hanging at the dog park with her doodle, Finley. She lives in Chicago, Illinois.
Jody Eddy is a food writer and the author of Come In, We're Closed and the IACP Award-winning North: The New Nordic Cuisine of Iceland . She is also the former editor of Art Culinaire . A graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education in Manhattan, Jody has cooked at Jean Georges, Tabla, and The Fat Duck. She lives in Chicago where she enjoys running, gardening, and planning tomorrow's next culinary adventure.
Reviews (1)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Photographer Goldberg, art director Kuhn, and food writer Eddy made three visits to Havana and its environs over a five-year period, feasting on the local cuisine and meeting the proud cooks and farmers of the area. They now report back on their sightseeing, with scores of photos and 75 recipes in tow. Among the many interesting insights into Cuba's culinary identity are a look at the Santeria religion, which advises that animals should be appreciated "from conception to consumption," recognition of the black market as an essential source for dessert ingredients, and a brief history of Havana's Chinatown, once the largest in Latin America, now down to a single Chinese chef. An accompanying egg roll recipe calls for hot chiles, chorizo, and black beans. Other treats spread across the 10 chapters include ropa vieja sliders from a section on sandwiches, ribs with guava BBQ sauce, and a shrimp and scallop ceviche. Caffeine and rum duke it out in the beverage chapter, featuring those two classic quaffs, café cubano and the mojito. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Basic Training A typical home meal usually includes simple ingredients that are universally beloved by Cubans. Rice and beans are mainstays that are gussied up with vegetables such as yuca (also known as cassava) and malanga, fruit such as mango and plantains, and proteins like chicken and pork. Flavor enhancers such as mojo sauce and sofrito and rich beef and chicken stocks provide a little pizzazz (more on all of these shortly). Baguettes or white rolls are another staple often served alongside a simple garnish plate of raw onions and tomatoes. Havana's cuisine rarely deviates from an amalgamation of urban market basics, but there is much more variety waiting to be discovered in the countryside. Ingredients that were once staples of the indigenous diet--such as rabbit, guinea pig, and goat--are not necessarily common, but it's also not a surprise to find them on a rural table. Outliers such as snake, alligator, iguana, and crocodile also turn up, especially in Baracoa in the Guantanamo Province of eastern Cuba. Red mole, a flavorful tomato and ancho chile-based sauce laced with precious Cuban chocolate, is another rare but welcome rural discovery since the government exports most of the cacao beans grown in Cuba and very little of it remains for the Cuban people to enjoy. It is in the countryside that tenuous links to Cuba's indigenous past exist in backyards where cooking is still primarily done over charcoal in the slow, leisurely way that busy residents of Havana rarely have time for today. What doesn't change when traveling between Havana and Cuba's rural regions are the basic foods beloved by everyone. Without ingredients like rice and beans and fried plantains, Cuban cuisine would lose its identity. No Cuban meal is complete without black beans and rice, and many Cuban recipes such as ropa vieja, a shredded beef dish, are deepened by the slow development of sofrito, a combination of onions, garlic, tomatoes, and other aromatics, at the beginning of the cooking process. Sofrito also finds its way into many of the velvety stocks forming the foundation of most Cuban stews and soups. Stocks made with animal bones that impart a silken texture are cooked low and slow, infusing the home with a tantalizing aroma promising good things to come. Another flavor enhancer in the Cuban pantry is mojo, a sauce typically composed of garlic and citrus juice that adds vibrancy to dishes like baked fish or fried plantains. Bijol (see page 243) is beloved in the Cuban culinary repertoire--a proprietary flavor and color enhancer as it endows a dish with a cheerful yellow hue. Bijol is especially favored in rice; it transforms a ho-hum bowl of white grains into something a little more festive and bright. In a country whose people have been denied their right to exist as autonomous citizens by each new wave of colonizers and then by a native dictator, the basics that find their way to the Cuban table each day--the rice, beans, plantains, yuca, sofrito, mojo, and heady stocks and broths--are symbols of resiliency and courage. Most fundamentally, they are a link to the past that is cherished by Cuban people today. Each humble recipe transcends the sum of its parts, representing how a little creativity and patience can transform even the most elemental ingredients into something tantalizing and beautiful. Shredded Plantain Chips Makes about 30 chips 4 green plantains, peeled 2 cups vegetable oil Salt Shred the plantains using a box grater. Heat 1 inch of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Test the heated oil by adding a shred of plantain and making sure it starts to sizzle. Carefully add tablespoonfuls of shredded plantain to the hot oil. Use a spatula to gently flatten each mound into a little patty. Cook until golden brown on the first side, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook on the other side. If the plantains are browning too quickly, lower the heat slightly. Transfer the cooked plantain chips to paper towels using a slotted spoon and season with salt while hot. Excerpted from Cuba!: Recipes and Stories from the Cuban Kitchen by Dan Goldberg, Andrea Kuhn, Jody Eddy All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.