Everything in the slow cooker before...

A dish I love and make often.

When I was down in Florida I tried a great classic Cuban dish called ropa vieja. It was was so good that I had to try to make it. It’s like a beef stew. I used a chuck roast but the classic recipes call for flank steak.

Ropa Vieja (ROpah vee-EH-hah) translates literally from Spanish as “old clothes,” so named because you cook the beef, then shred it up, like tattered old clothes.And with flavors of slow cooked beef stewed in a rich sauce of onions, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, cumin, bay, and oregano, it’s no wonder it’s among the best loved dishes in all of Cuban cuisine.Some recipes call to braise the beef first with all the flavorings and then shred. I prefer to boil the beef first, cool and shred, and then stew it with all the seasonings. I find it cooks up more tender this way. There’s not that much active time to make the dish, but it does take about an hour and 30 to 45 minutes from start to finish. The part where you boil the beef can be halved by cooking it in a pressure cooker for about 30 minutes, if you have a pressure cooker.Serve with steamed rice (in Cuban cuisine, they usually add a little salt and oil to their steamed rice). Alternatively, it would also be delicious over risotto or polenta.Leftovers are great in tacos and burritos. Use a little less liquid, and it makes a delicious empanada filling.

From the recipe 'Grandma's Soup,' I'm sharing the ropa vieja recipe my grandmother made using some of the meat and vegetables from her soup.