In the past week, Cuba has been in the news as diplomatic relations have been restored and the long-dormant American embassy in Havana has reopened. What a perfect moment for Ana Sofia Peláez, the writer, and Ellen Silverman, the photographer, to reward us with The Cuban Table. By 1900, Cuba as an exuberant example of culinary globalization: indigenous, Spanish, African, Chinese, Caribbean, and French cuisines had all nestled into the kitchens and restaurants of a tropical island. There was an abundance of ingredients and recipes that made Cuban cuisines something memorable.
Ana has returned to her family’s native island, touring not just Havana but the entire island, seeking out the recipe treasures that have been lost. The past 55 years, with unpleasant politics and economic strife, have taken their toll on the daily cuisine many Cubans and tourists experience. But the recipes are not all lost, many are still quietly, privately prepared. This book is important as, literally, an encyclopedia of the original, great Cuban cuisine that existed and that hopefully now will revive in full and thrill us all.
The recipes here range from the simple to the wondrously complex. There is a breakfast pastry of just puff pastry and guava paste. Or there are the chorizo empanadas were the filling is a full concert of flavors: chorizo, onion, bell pepper, garlic, cloves, tomatoes, whine, bay leaf, potatoes, and parsley. Not your typical slap-dash empanada at all.
Here are some key recipes from the key chapters, both savory and sweet and drinkable.
In Soups and Stews, you can find:
Garlic Soup with Poached Eggs
Okra Stew with Plantain Dumplings
Creole Stew with Yucca Flatbread
In Beans, Rice and Eggs, Ana offers:
Drenched Chicken and Rice: orange juice marinade and bell pepper sofrito
Baked Eggs in Rolls: eggs baked with béchamel sauce, ham, and peas inside sweet rolls
Chicken, Beef and Pork provides classic recipes of an early, richer Cuba that we can all wish will resurface:
Creole Fried Chicken: cloves, oregano, cumin, orange juice, and onion
Classic Beef Picadillo: ground beef with onion, bell pepper, cloves, oregano, cum, tomatoes, olives, raising, capers, sherry and more
Lime Marinate Crispy Beef
Oxtail in Caper Sauce
Fish and Seafood is what any island must be expected to offer, but now in Cuban style:
Snapper Stuffed with Shrimp, Scallops, and Bread
Cornmeal Stew with Crab
Fish in Coconut Sauce
Sweets and Desserts is, thank God, a long, long chapter with new sensations for any sweet tooth:
Egg Custard: flavored with cinnamon and lime
Anise Fritters with Cinnamon-Lime Syrup
Plantain Tart
In Drinks you will find old friends, by name, but with new dashes of flavor:
Daiquiri with Maraschino liqueur
Cuban Egg Nog: sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, cream, egg yolks, rum
Mojito: with that club soda but now optionally topped with Angostura bitters
Ellen Silverman is recognized as a superior food photographer. She has the perfect eye for color and composition, for focus and charm. Even with these brilliant shots, I still have trouble imagining some of these dishes. They are simply different, food combinations that I have never seen or experienced. The photos do visually tempt and then you read the recipe and you do what Suzen and I are doing: you begin to cook.
This is a book beyond lovely. It’s historically important and exciting in the new perspective it gives to old directions. If you try this book, you’ll be festively happy. It’s a time for new beginning with Cuba. And in your kitchen with The Cuban Table.