Weekend Cooking: Slow Cooker Ropa Vieja

It's almost Christmas, and my cooking week, has gone full-on easy, tried-and-true, and flexible. I can't believe how many evenings have been taken up with last-minute errands, wrapping, cleaning, decorating ... ARGH.

Last week's dinners included lentil soup, roast chicken, and pasta with my homemade sauce (from the freezer). Last night we resorted to tuna salad because the easy savory galatte I had planned suddenly seemed like too much trouble.

Tonight I'm turning to the slow cooker and a reliable recipe from Food & Wine magazine. I cut out this recipe for ropa vieja from the March 2010 issue, but I found a copy of it on the magazine's website, so you can bookmark it there or here, whichever is easier for you.

Ropa Vieja is a Cuban dish, and I'm not at all sure that this recipe is anywhere close to being authentic, so you can let me know if you care to research. Note too that I agree with the reviewers on the Food & Wine site, that the recipe as written was not overly flavorful. I have tweaked the ingredients to suit our tastes, and that's the version you'll get here.

Slow Cooker Ropa Vieja
Adapted from Food & Wine

• One (2- to 3-pound) flank steak, cut into 4 chunks
• Sea salt and pepper to taste
• One (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup red wine (I don't really measure)
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 orange bell pepper, sliced
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 or 3 hot peppers, depending on taste and which peppers you're using, chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano (I don't really measure)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin (I don't really measure)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tablespoon chili powder (I don't really measure)
• 3/4 cup pitted green olives (I halve them after not measuring)
• 2 tablespoons capers, drained
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• Brown rice for serving

Season the steak with salt and pepper.

Put the tomatoes and their juices, the wine, bell peppers, onion, garlic, hot peppers, oregano, cumin, bay leaf, and chili powder in the slow cooker. Mix. Place the steak on top. Cover and cook on high for 5 hours, until the meat is very tender.

Transfer the meat to a cutting board and let rest while you stir the olives, capers, and cilantro into the sauce. Don't turn off the cooker.

Shred the meat and return it to the cooker. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings, if needed. Let the meat rewarm for a few minutes. Serve over the rice.

The photo of the finished dish is from Food & Wine. Note that the ropa vieja is always waaaay more saucy than this photo shows.

_______

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

NOTE: Mr. Linky sometimes is mean and will give you an error message. He's usually wrong and your link went through just fine the first time. Grrrr.
_______