Triathlon Training Recovery Leads to Overindulgance in Cuban Feast

So once upon a time, I put together a bucket list of sorts, involving adventures such as skydiving and exotic travel, and feats of endurance and strength, such as triathlons and marathons.  I've been more than successful at the fun adventures, but not so much with the feats of endurance and strength.  And so, bolstered by the success of running two 10ks and a half marathon, 2011 became the year of running, biking, swimming, and generally being out of breath while I train for a half marathon, two olympic triathlons and a marathon.  My special man friend is also similarly nuts and has been into road cycle racing for the last several years.  This all requires lots of delicious but well balanced calories... my favorite part about burning 500-1000 calories a day training.  Of course, after one particularly grueling day, we probably negated the effects of training by eating some ridiculous amounts of Cuban food -- Venison Ropa Vieja served over white rice, black beans stewed in sofrito, pan-fried plantains, and Sauteed Vegetetables in Mojo Marinade.  In our defense, it was amazingly delicious.

Venison Ropa Vieja was born out of a desire to use my crockpot and to use the venison stew meat I got by bartering homebrews to my "living off the earth" second parents.  Sure, beef is the traditional meat, but local venison hand butchered by people I trust sure as heck beats cows raised in their own poo and processed in a huge facility.  I browned about 2 pounds of venison stew meat in canola oil and then transferred this to my crockpot before I went to work.  Then I threw in the following and set my crockpot to low for 10 hours:

• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded and sliced into strips
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups of pureed tomato (when I get a surplus of tomatos in the summer from my CSA or a mysterious bag dropped off by a friend when their tomato plants overproduce, I pop 'em in a blender and freeze them to use in place of tomato sauce in recipes)
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 packet Goya sazon with achiote and culantro
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

About 5 minutes prior to serving, use two forks to shred the stew meat and stir well so all the pieces soak up the sauce. 

I love my freezer.  Mostly because it allows me to keep the bounty of summer and fall and maintain the bright freshness of those flavors that often gets lost when dehydrating food or canning it.  Wonderful but delicate herbs like cilantro are often thrown away because it is nearly impossible to use the huge bunch you get before it goes bad.  So I often make Sofrito to stash away in my freezer (if you freeze it in ice cube trays and then transfer to a ziplock, its easy to grab a few every time you need some) for amazing stewed black beans done Caribbean style.  Caribbean style sofrito is basically done by blending together tomato, cilantro, onion, some sort of pepper (I've used everything from green pepper to anaheim to jalapenos and habaneros).  Take about a cup of it for a can of black beans, saute it lightly in canola oil, add a dash of white vinegar and 1/2 a packet of Goya sazon with achiote and culantro, and you'll have the best black beans ever.

With the hearty dense flavors of the black beans and ropa vieja, I wanted something light to accompany the meal.  Cuban food tends to be very heavy, often fried, and usually laden with sweet sweet carbs (rice, plantains, yuca, you name it).  I was researching Cuban vegetable recipes and, no big surprise, there were almost none.  Mostly fresh salsas used for garnish.  I did, however, come across a traditional Cuban grilling marinade usually used to marinate meat and fish.  The flavors incorporated a very bright citrus accent, and I decided I would buck tradition and do Sauteed Vegetables in Mojo Marinade. 

I basically just sliced a bunch of different kinds of bell peppers, red onion, summer squash, and tomatillos and just barely sauteed them over high heat.  At the last minute, pour the mojo marinade over the veggies and cover to steam for a couple minutes (not too long, still want the veggies to be crisp).  The marinade was simple and could easily be made ahead, just put the following ingredients in the blender and pulse until its all incorporated and as smooth as you can get it:

• 6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup minced yellow onion
• 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano (dried if you don't have fresh, I happened to have some leftover in my fridge)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 cup olive oil

We basically ate until our stomachs hurt, but it was worth it.  Lesson learned... next time stick the leftovers in the freezer first and then dig in.