A Belated Welcome Back to Dad

Monday morning, my wonderful, hard-working and fun-loving Dad got back from a well-deserved trip to Cuba! His girlfriend Martha won the trip though a charity raffle, and just 3 weeks later they jetted off on an all-inclusive resort vacation. The lucky bums got to tour the locale (where neither of them had been before), and even took a side trip to Havana! I can't wait to see the pictures, plus a little birdy told me there were some shiny things in store! I knew he would get my sister and I souveniers, but it isn't something I expected him to do, since before he left he gave me two Cuisine de France Santoku knives!

In honour of his return I've found a few Cuban recipes for inspiration, including today's from Taste of Cuba. One of the main components of Cuban cooking is sofrito. Sofrito is a Spanish word for a well cooked and fragrant sauce. In Caribbean and Latin American cuisine, it is a sauce of tomatoes, roasted peppers, garlic, onions and herbs.

Sofrito Cubano
Serves 20
25 cherry tomatoes, chopped
2 green peppers, chopped
2 large onions, chopped
10 garlic cloves, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 tsp of ground cumin
1 tsp of dried oregano
3/4 cup sherry
4 Tbsp olive oil

1. Chop all the ingredients (except bay leaf, sherry and olive oil) in a blender.
2. Sautee chopped mixture with bay leaf in oil until all vegetables are limp.
3. Add sherry and let simmer 15 minutes.
4. Store, covered, in fridge.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 45.9
Total Fat: 2.8 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 3.3 mg
Total Carbs: 4.0 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.7 g
Protein: 0.6 g