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smoking Ropa Vieja on the Weber kettle

austin87

austin87

I had some frozen skirt steaks and homegrown tomotoes and Bahamian goats, so I figured I'm putting out my take on Cuban ropa vieja.
 
The veggies
 

 
Couple of pepper pics (light is better in one, the quarter is in the other for scale) and I ended up using 3 Bahamian goats I grew (had to save one for later) and what I believe to be a long pheno red bhut I got from a friend
 

 

 
Red and white onion sliced and into a well oiled CIDO
 

 
I fired up my 18" kettle with a small chimney and put the cooking grate on top to sear the meat, it creates a hot as all hell sear zone
 

 

 

 
Garlic and bay leaves
 

 
On top of some seared skirt
 

 
Move to the 22" kettle to get ready for the actual cooking part, fire roast the tomatoes to loosen the skin
 

 

 
After pulling off the skin and squashing the tomatoes a bit I added coriander, Mexican oregano, ground mustard, salt, and pepper
 

 
 
Charring peppers
 

 
Skin removed and chopped
 

 
The chopped hotties :)
 

 
Into the basement (charcoal grate rather than cooking grate) with a lid on top, now it just needs to cook for a couple hours
 

 
I added a couple of cups of beef broth for braising liquid, and once everything loosens up I'll take the lid off to reduce down a bit. I may add a piece of smoking wood at that time... we'll see. Be back with the rest in a couple of hours.
 
Looking forward to this. Love some ropa vieja.
 
Well, I'd call this a moderate success. It took WAY longer than I thought for the meat to pull apart, next time I would use 1 cup of beef broth instead of two, I somehow forgot cumin, which I put in just about everything, and for adding 3 Bahamian goats and a bhut, the whole dish was extremely underwhelming on the spice front. I've really stepped up my game in the heat department.

When the meat was tender, I pulled off the lid and added some cherry wood chunks, so it had a nice smoke flavor. I would have liked to cook off a little more liquid (or started with less) but I was so damn hungry I couldn't wait.

I put it over yam cooked indirect on the grill - the sweetness and texture was good, but obviously not double deep fried plantain (tostones), as Grass Snake suggested last night.

For the first shot at ropa vieja I'd give it a passing grade, but could definitely improve significantly next time.

Off the grill



Over the yam and garnished with a little cilantro and lime

 
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