Kitchen Secrets with Our Cuban Chef – Rabo Encendido Cubano
Rabo encendido cubano or stewed oxtail is a juicy pleasure, an oxtail cooked with a sofrito that includes tomato, onion and chili, among other ingredients, which makes it really irresistible to the palate. It is easy to prepare. This is a very delicious dish that we usually serve on special occasions due to the time it takes to prepare it, but it is worth it in the end.
This dish is not typical of Cuba, it comes from the Iberian cuisine, but the colonizers took their traditions to every corner and in Cuba they adopted these flavors, added their characteristic spiciness and named it Rabo encendido cubano.
In addition, it is prepared with a sofrito, easy to prepare, and it is delicious with the meat, this sofrito combines tomato, onion and bell pepper, oregano, cumin and especially chili. This is a matter of taste, but, for many, this dish of Rabo encendido cubano is much tastier the next day, once reheated so that the flavors blend longer.
Oxtail is very tasty and rich in collagen which gives the sauces a unique gelatinous consistency, like all stews it needs a tomato sauce. This dish needs time because it requires prolonged cooking and tastes better the next day.
It is one of the most popular and famous dishes in Cuba. Every household has its own recipe, and each version has a personal ingredient. This dish is one of the few that contains chili because Cuban cuisine is much less spicy than other cuisines in the region.
This is one of the versions you can find of how Rabo encendido cubano is prepared, but there are a multitude of possible variations that you can enjoy at home. Some of these versions can be left to marinate overnight or can be made immediately. It is usually accompanied with a little white rice, plantain chips and a fresh salad.
Oxtail can be cooked immediately or marinated overnight in a mixture of olive oil and dry white wine. In this case, it is best to bring the wine to the boil and let it cool completely so that the alcohol that has evaporated during cooking does not disintegrate the meat. Contrary to popular belief, wine makes the meat firmer when used in a marinade.
White wine is sometimes replaced with beer which brings a slightly bitter taste to the dish that some prefer.
Like all oxtail stews around the world, the aromatic broth can be enriched with carrots or celery stalks.
HOW IS RABO ENCENDIDO CUBANO MADE?
Ingredients:
- 2 beef oxtails, cleaned and cut into pieces of about 10 cm
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/2 kg. onion
- 1/2 head of garlic
- 3 large peppers roasted and peeled, or a can of bell peppers
- 1/2 cup finely chopped flat parsley
- 1/2 cup tomato sauce
- 1 ½ tablespoons salt
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ¼ teaspoon oregano
- 3 cups dry or red wine
- capers, finely chopped
- 2 medium carrots, chopped in strips
- Chili peppers or hot sauce to taste
SO HOW TO PREPARE RABO ENCENDIDO CUBANO?
- We start by washing the pieces of oxtail and drying them with a clean kitchen towel.
- In a deep pot over medium heat, pour the olive oil and seal the tails, for 5 minutes from side to side.
- In the same pot in which we fried the oxtail, we will fry the onion, garlic, peppers, parsley, capers, and tomato sauce.
- Then put the sealed pieces of oxtail, add the rest of the ingredients, cumin, salt, wine, oregano, and hot bell pepper, cover, and let it cook for 2 hours at medium heat.
- Check every 20 minutes that the liquids do not dry out, if so we can add more wine.
- Add the carrots when it has an hour and a half on the fire.
- If you have a pressure cooker the process is shorter, you can put the pieces of oxtail with 1 liter of water for 30 minutes and then continue with the recipe that we show you without frying the oxtails.
- Remember to prepare some rice to accompany this dish and you can add some finely chopped chives. And, if you want to make it more complete, prepare a fresh salad.
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