Mondonguito, don't take offense, think!
8,400,000 people. 1% = 84,000 good cooks! Which I will bet is a lot more than there really are!.
And I'll bet that of those 84,000 most of them have never read a cook book....
Mondongo-you once said you hate mondongo!. I can't stand it either! But 99% of the population think it is a delicious meal after a night of drinking. Is it that the booze kills the taste buds?? Or culture.
My dear deceased bro in law insisted on platanos, rice and beans and other dominican delicacies in 1959 in BOSTON!! There wasn't a platano within 150 miles of Boston....!! So the family went to NYC every couple of weeks to buy at the bodegas!!. Talk about spoiled!!
Want to make a Dominican happy? Cook rice. Boil Beans, preferibly kidney, but black or chick peas are okey, too., being sure to use cilantro, one onion and a Cubanela green pepper for flavoring.( Secrets: In a separate pan, heat a little oil, add some tomato paste, a cube of chicken broth, a tooth of garlic and a touch of Sazon Ranchero (1 tbls) plus you take a cup of the beans, put them in a blender and add them to this pan. All this is saute?d for a couple of minutes and goes into the bean pot and is stirred.) Get some beef-cut doesn't matter. Hit it a lot with a hammar, season with oregano, salt and a little pepper. Peel and cut some onions.
Add oil to a pan. Cook beef until shoe-leather done, no pink allowed. Remove from pan. Add onions and a splash of vinegar, put beef back in and mix. Serve with grated cabbage and a slice of greenish tomato, put rice and beans on the side. Make salad dressing of lemon juice and salt and pepper.
TRINA? Really good cooks don't use books to cook or a lot of measurements, but this is because they have been doing that particular recipe for years and know it by heart. No great chef goes about without measuring everything....That is part of being a good chef. Go on, ask MommC, tonight she should be back on line saying that it is cold up there...
P.S. the bean recipe is infallable and will bring tears to the eyes of any Dominican...
HB