Ropa Vieja 舊衣服 （古巴燉牛肉）

"Ropa Vieja" in Spanish means "old clothes", a name for a Cuban beef stew dish. The meat is cook for so long and is shredded that it almost resembles the old clothes.
My recipe is mainly based on this recipe from Food Networks by Alex Garcia:

1.5 pounds of flank steak
2 onions, julienne
1 carrot, sliced
1 tablespoon of dry oregano
2 bay leaves
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, julienne
1 green bell pepper, julienne
2 jalapeño chilli, sliced
1.5 teaspoon of ground cumin
2 cups of tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup of sherry
black pepper, sea salt

There are many different recipes for Ropa Vieja. In this other recipe, the beef flank is seasoned with freshly ground black pepper and salt, and then browned. I did the seasoning part,and let the meat sit for a while, but I didn't do the browning. I found it a good idea compared to the main recipe I am copying because the recipe didn't put salt to the meat when cooking, which might make the meat a bit weak.

In a heavy-lided pot, put the seasoned meat, 1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 tablespoon of oregano, 2 bay leaves, and 2 jalapeno pepper into the pot, add water till it just covers the meat. Bring the water to boil, then turn down the heat to simmer for 1 hour 40 minutes till the meat is tender. The jalapeno here is just to give the meat a kick. The water should be salty enough for the meat to soak in the flavor.

While the meat is cooking, I start up another pot. Add olive oil to the pot, saute 2 garlic, 1 onion till translucent. Add 1 red pepper and 1 green pepper, stir, and then add 1/2 cup of sherry, 1.5 teaspoon of cumin, and 2 cups of tomatoes. Some recipes use tomato paste for tomatoes instead. I think I will try it next time. Anyways, the point is to cook till the tomatoes become thick. It took me 30 minute to make the sauce thickened. In the mean time, if the sauce runs dry, scoop some meat juice from the meat pot to add into the tomato sauce. If the meat is ready by then, take the meat out to cool a little bit. I am very impatient so I used two forks to shred the meat into 2 inch long strips instead of using my hands.


After the meat is shredded, dump the shredded meat back to the sauce pot. Cook for another 20 minute or less, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve with rice and black beans.