The Panama Canal Administration
Building sits on a hill overlooking the town of Balboa. Approaching
from the town side, you first scale a steep and lengthy set
of steps, then walk around to the main entrance. My friend Deb
and I made that climb every Friday for a year. The building
houses murals and rows of offices. But we never paid any attention
to either of those.
Only one thing interested us: the cafeteria. On Fridays, it
opened to non-Canal employees. We pounded down the steps to
the basement, eagerly anticipating our cafe con leche and plates
of ropa vieja with rice, delicacies not available from the Balboa
High cafeteria. What could be appealing about a dish called
"old clothes"? The name probably came about because the preparation
typically uses leftover roast. There are as many ways to prepare
ropa vieja as there are clothing combinations at a thrift store.
This one relies on my memories of how it tasted on Friday afternoons,
and some advice from my mom, who thinks she got her recipe from
"one of those women's magazines in the seventies."
For the meat:
-
1 1/2-2 lbs. flank steak, or leftover roast (any cut you'd
use for pot roast)
-
2 onions, diced
-
4 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
Place ingredients in a pot. Add water to just cover. Simmer
over very low heat for 1 1/2-2 hours, until meat falls apart
and shreds easily--test by pulling a chunk of meat with a fork.
If it pulls off easily, it's ready. Put the meat on a platter
to cool, saving the broth aside.
For the sauce (a version of sofrito, a basic ingredient of
Latino-Caribbean cooking):
-
2 onions, diced
-
4 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
-
2 bell peppers, seeded and chopped
-
32 oz. can diced or crushed tomatoes
-
3 tbs. olive oil
Pour the oil into a 3 or 4 quart Dutch oven. Heat over a low
flame until the oil releases its fragrance. Add the onions and
garlic, and saute until soft. Add the bell peppers, continuing
to saute until the peppers lose some of their crispness. Add
the tomatoes. Cook for ten minutes.
Shred the cooled beef and add it to the tomato mixture. Add
enough of the reserved broth to make a sauce that is slightly
thicker than soup, but not quite a stew. Cook for ten to fifteen
minutes. Serve over plain rice.
My mom omits the sofrito. To make her ropa vieja, follow the
instructions for the meat, slicing the onion into strips rather
than dicing it, and adding the bell pepper, also sliced into
strips. Add one packet of powdered beef boullion (not the cube
sort). When the meat is tender, shred it directly in the pot,
using two forks. Continue cooking until almost all of the liquid
is absorbed. Serve as a flour tortilla filling.
Recipes similar to mine appear in Joyce LaFray's Cuba Cocina
and Barbara Karoff's South American Cooking. In his wonderful
book, The Art of South American Cooking, Felipe Rojas-Lombardi
provides a recipe for a salad called ropa vieja. It's made of
shredded beef, tossed with shredded cabbage and a light vinaigrette,
served at room temperature. Mix and match as you wish!
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