Cuban Home Cooking: Favorite Recipes from a Cuban Home Kitchen [Paperback]

Jane Cossio (Author), Joyce Lafray (Editor), Jane Tasciotti/ Joan Croom (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1996

Florida's best selling Cuban home cooking cookbook. These time-honored dishes meld with the rhythm and spices of the Caribbean. Savor the artistry of authentic Cuban cuisine at its best: pollo frito, ropa vieja, carne con papas, garden eggs and many, many more! Distinctive flavors and easy preparation techniques abound. This very practical compilation contains the best of the classics, minus the tropical fats and oils commonly associated with island cuisines. A complete Cuban glossary in both English and Spanish offers simple substitutes.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joyce LaFray, acknowledged to be one of the country's foremost food experts, has earned plaudits for her ability to educate and entertain in a cornucopia of media settings. Restaurant reviewer, author, lecturer, and editor, Joyce has developed a rapidly growing, enthusiastic group of fans who follow her food paths in Florida and throughout the country.
Her readers have faithfully followed her exploits and adventures in the fields of food, wine, and travel, via a myriad number of cookbooks and restaurant guides. Joyce is a frequent contributor to Gourmet Retailer, Where and many other food and travel magazines. When food writers visit Florida they call Joyce for advice on which restaurants to visit...from the New York Times...to Food & Wine...to USA Today.

Product Details

• Paperback: 114 pages
• Publisher: Seaside Publishing, Inc.; 2nd Edition edition (September 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0942084373
• ISBN-13: 978-0942084375
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 4.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #447,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #58 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > Caribbean & West Indian
  • #67 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > Latin American

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Authentic !!!, May 4, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cuban Home Cooking: Favorite Recipes from a Cuban Home Kitchen (Paperback)

Many books claim to give AUTHENTIC recipes with there Colorful Pictures and expensive price tag but most fail to claim. Having lived in South Florida and eating the foods on a regular basis I have to say that this little book is as Authentic as it gets from the ingredients of the black Beans to the secret ingredient in (Bistec Empanizado)Cracker Meal; which I could never figure out until reading this book,. A great book which I give five stars. If only they publish a greek cooking book as authentic as this one.

43 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Delicious introduction to Cuban home style cooking., February 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Cuban Home Cooking: Favorite Recipes from a Cuban Home Kitchen (Paperback)

Black beans and rice was all I knew about Cuban cuisine until I had a chance to review "Cuban Home Cooking: Favorite Recipes From A Cuban Home Kitchen" by Jane Cossio, sent to me by her editor, Joyce LaFray, from Seaside Publications of Florida. And all I knew about food from southern Florida was grits, collards, fried chicken, and hush puppies. Now I am unafraid to try some of those more exotic foods (such as Cuban calabaza, plantain, and yuca), which I see in our local produce store and did not know how to prepare properly.

Jane Cossio and Joyce LaFray provide a good sampling of Cuban recipes for a variety of dishes, such as soups, vegetable dishes, meat dishes, sea food, desserts, and even Cuban coffee. Do you like soup, and want something different? Look for the recipe for "Quimbombo" or Okra Soup, which calls for okra, pork, green pepper, garlic, plantain, shrimp, and various spices. How about some Calabaza Fritters or Baked Sweet Plantain in Wine? I can't wait to try the Chicken and Yellow Rice, made with green and red peppers, saffron, and beer.

You might try the mouth-watering recipe for "Old Clothes". Huh? This is what the Spanish name, "Ropa Vieja," means--it's a delicious shredded beef dish. The only thing more that I would add is a touch of habanero chile or tabasco sauce. Also, if you have 3,800 people to feed try the Caldo de Elefante, or Elephant Stew. It only takes one elephant and two chickens (just a joke!).

Along with the great recipes, I do appreciate the spiral ring binding which allows me to lay the book flat on my kitchen counter without the usual worry of breaking the binding to make it lie flat, or of pages turning by themselves. Also, the author provides a list of commonly used Cuban foods, with their Spanish translations, and a general inventory of commonly used ingredients to stock in your pantry. -- R. Morley, The Boojum Tree Bookstore.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book - and I'm Cuban-American!, April 16, 2004

By 

E. Mesker "cybertoad" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cuban Home Cooking: Favorite Recipes from a Cuban Home Kitchen (Paperback)

Raised with typical Cuban dishes (both of my parents immigrated from Cuba to the US), I searched for a good, concise Cuban cookbook and found it! This it it! Sure, there aren't any fancy pictures but there are also no fancy ingredients or obscure dishes. The list of recipes covers all the basic dishes (I read the list to my mother and she agrees - it's all in there) and the recipes are so simple and easy (almost all are only a paragraph long).

I've tried other Cuban recipe books and I still *always* come back to this one for dishes that turn out as close to Mom's as possible. Maybe I'll just toss the other books out... all I need is this one!