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Cuban Style Tasajo Made With Dry Cured Beef Is So Good!

Leave a Comment / CUBAN, DINNER / Recipes

Tasajo is made from jerked beef that’s stewed in a tomato-based sauce with lots of peppers and onions. I love this dish! Every time I have a bite of Mami’s tasajo, it brings me back to the Formica dining table in our old duplex in Westchester, one of the most Latin neighborhoods in Miami (outside of Little Havana and Hialeah, of course). What I love about this dish is the saltiness and the texture.

How to best describe tasajo? It’s the salty cousin to Cuban ropa vieja. While using the same ingredients and preparation as ropa vieja, the texture and taste are transformed by the salting and drying process.

What is Tasajo Cubano?

Tasajo is beef that is salted, macerated, cured, and set to dry. It does not require refrigeration and it’s a throwback to time when most homes did not have a way to refrigerate foods. Horse meat was traditionally used in Cuban tasajo, but the tasajo you find in the US is made with beef, and that’s the one I grew up eating.

You may be able to find tasajo in the meat section of your local supermarket, but not always. You’ll have much better luck finding it in Latin supermarkets, sold in vacuumed sealed packages. But if you can’t find it locally, you should be able to purchase it online. (I have not purchased from this company before and this is not an affiliate link.)

Start this recipe the day before

Not gonna lie, this dish takes a while, but it’s worth it! First, you need to remove it from its packaging and soak overnight to remove some of the salt. The tasajo meat is covered in an orange layer of fat. The orange color is due to the beta carotene.

You can remove this layer of fat and soak it, but I don’t usually bother removing it (call me lazy… but Mami does it the same way). For those of you who are more industrious, you can remove the orange layer by scraping it off and washing with warm water. Divide the meat into 2-3 pieces, cutting against the grain.

Cooking and prepping

The next day, drain the tasajo and place in a pot with fresh water. Turn up the heat until the water begins to boil. Lower and simmer for 20 minutes or so. The orange layer will melt away. Drain and repeat the process, boiling for another 20 minutes. Drain once more and let it cool. If you’re in a hurry, you place it in the refrigerator to cool.

Once cooled, shred the meat with your fingers and remove any fatty pieces you find. Taste for saltiness and rinse over warm water if it’s too salty for your taste. From this point on, the process is very similar to making ropa vieja.

Cut half an onion, and a red bell pepper into slices and crush two garlic cloves. Set a sauté pan over medium heat, add a few tablespoons of olive oil and sauté the onions and peppers until translucent. Add the crushed garlic and cook for another minute. Then, add the tomato sauce, cooking wine, cumin, oregano and pepper. Add the shredded beef and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Adjust seasonings as needed and serve. Que rico!

What To Serve with Cuban Tasajo

Serve this dish with congri rice and boniato, a Cuban sweet potato. The dry, cured beef is rather salty so the mild flavor of the rice and beans and the sweetness of the boniato truly balances the dish… and I would argue it’s a must.

Cuban red beans and rice — Red Bean Congri

You can make congri rice with black beans or red beans. For this blog post, I paired this dish with the red bean congri, but it’s just as tasty with the black bean congri. Actually, the black bean version, also known as Moros y Cristianos, is the more popular rice dish.

Boniato is a Cuban potato that is white and slightly sweet. If you can’t find it, substitute with sweet potato. You can cut into chunks or rounds and boil it, roast it, fry it or stew it along with the meat. If you decide to stew it, you’ll need to add a little more sauce to the dish, so double the tomato sauce and cooking wine. Also add a bit of water if you notice the sauce is drying up.

As I was working on this recipe, I thought about the importance of balance. The salty tasajo really needs the counterpoint of the sweet boniato to really shine.

We all need a little balance in life, like ying and yang, sweet and salty, fire and ice.

Community helps us find this balance. Friends, family and significant others require us to make changes, to compromise, to let go of some things to accommodate others. We may not always like how messy this can be, but just like with cooking, a messy kitchen can lead to a spectacular feast.

So the next time you’re wishing someone would see things your way, do things your way or let you have your way, just think of how delicious it could be to embrace a different perspective, a new approach, a road less familiar to you.

Savor every moment, every bite, every fork in the road.

Cuban Style Tasajo Made With Dry Cured Beef Is So Good!

Author: Sandi Abbott
Prep Time: Soak overnight, 15 minutes of prep
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Yield: 4 servings 1x
Category: Entree
Method: Stovetop
Cuisine: Cuban

Print Recipe

Description

Tasajo is dry cured beef that’s stewed in tomato sauce with onions, red bell peppers and savory spices. It’s the salty cousin to Cuban ropa vieja.

Ingredients

Scale

1 lb tasajo (dry, cured beef) See note

½ a small onion (1/2 cup), chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

Half a red bell pepper, cut into strips

½ cup tomato sauce

2 tablespoons cooking wine

½ teaspoon oregano

½ teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

Tasajo Prep:

Start the day before. Remove the tasajo from its vacuum sealed package and cut into 2-3 pieces, across the grain. Set in a bowl and cover with water and let it soak overnight. You can leave it out or refrigerate, whatever you prefer.

The tasajo is covered with an orange fat layer. You can rinse this off or leave it on, either way it’s OK.

The next day, drain the water. Add the tasajo to a pot filled with water. Boil for 20 minutes. The orange layer will melt away.

Change water and bring to a boil and boil for another 20 minutes.

Remove the beef from the water and let it cool. Shred the beef with your fingers and remove any fatty tissue.

Chop the onion, cut the red bell pepper into slices, crush the garlic.

Take 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sauté onions and peppers until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the beef, tomato sauce and cooking wine. Cook for about 15-20 minutes (if it’s a bit dry, add a ¼ cup of water).

Serve with congri and fried boniato. See note.

Notes

Tasajo is sold in vacuum sealed packages, and it’s covered with a bright orange layer of waxy fat. Don’t be put off by this, this layer helps preserve the meat and it melts away when you boil it. You should be able to find this specialty beef at most Latin supermarkets.

Boniato is a Cuban sweet potato that’s traditionally served with the tasajo. The sweetness of the potato helps balance the saltiness of the beef. If you can’t find boniato, substitute with sweet potato. Cut the potato into chunks or quarter inch think rounds, then roast or fry. You can also boil the potato (I never boil, though. It’s so much tastier when it’s fried or roasted.

Keywords: tasajo, cuban tasajo, tasajo cubano, cured dry beef

I love Smokey Arroz Congri, (Cuban Red Beans and Rice)

Leave a Comment / CUBAN, RICE DISHES, SIDE DISHES / Recipes

I love, love arroz congri made with red beans, Spanish chorizo and salt pork. There are different variations on this dish, but what I love about Cuban red beans and rice is the smoky, salty flavors of cured meats mixed with cumin and oregano. It’s perfect with chicken, beef, and pork.

Cuban cooking is very non-nonsense, easy to make and easy on the budget. With one bag of red kidney beans and three cups of rice you can make enough servings to feed 10 – 12 people, so you’re sure to have leftovers.

Chorizo is The Key Ingredient in Cuban Red Beans and Rice

You want to use Spanish chorizo for this recipe. This sausage is cured and can usually be found in the same section as pepperoni. You may also come across Mexican chorizo in your search, but that’s usually raw and tastes very different. If you can’t find the Spanish chorizo at your local supermarket, you can buy it from Amazon. I like to use the Palacios Brand for my recipes.

Salt pork is used in Southern cooking so it’s easy to find in most supermarkets. If you don’t have it, you can substitute bacon (but you may want to make some extra… it’s hard not to eat it while you’re cooking!)

Soak And Cook The Red Kidney Beans

It’s really tempting to take a shortcut and use canned beans to make this arroz congri, but you get the best results when you cook the beans from scratch. The bean broth adds a lot of flavor that balances the spices and the saltiness of the chorizo and salt pork.

The biggest time issue is soaking the beans for a few hours before you start the cooking process. If you plan ahead you can soak beans in the morning or the night before.

You don’t absolutely have to soak the beans, but it is recommended. My mom always did it this way and it turns out it’s for the best. Soaking the beans helps remove some of the harmful anti-nutrient compounds, plus it reduces the complex sugars that can lead to gassy side effects.

The process of cooking the beans is easy. You just bring the beans to a boil, throw in half a whole onion, half a whole bell pepper, a few bay leaves and garlic cloves and set to simmer. It takes about 1-2 hours on the stove top, but you can shorten the time using an instant pot. To check them for doneness, take a few beans out, run it through some cold water and taste it. It should be soft but not mushy.

Do This While the Red Beans Are Simmering

When the beans are almost ready, start prepping the rest of the arroz congri ingredients.

Chop the rest of the white onion and bell pepper and crush two garlic cloves. Cube the salt pork into quarter inch pieces and slice the chorizo into half-inch rounds. Rinse the rice.

Once the beans are cooked, strain the beans and reserve in a separate container. If you leave the beans in the hot liquid, they will continue to soften and can turn mushy.

Heat a skillet over medium heat, add a little water and cook the salt pork. Once the water evaporates, add a little olive and cook until golden brown. Throw in the onions, peppers, and garlic and sauté for a few minutes, until the onions are translucent. Add the chorizo and cook just a bit to release some of the color. Then add the rice and sauté for a few more minutes.

Add the bean broth and the beans, bring to a boil then lower the heat, cover, and simmer for about half an hour, or until all the water is absorbed. You won’t be using all the beans and the broth, so that you can use freeze the leftover beans and broth to make this recipe again.

Batch and Freeze for Ease (Sorry for the cheesy line, but I couldn’t resist!)

This recipe takes a little time, but it’s worth it. You can shorten the time by cooking the beans the day before. The simmering is super low maintenance and can be done while you do other things. And since this recipe makes about 14 cups of arroz congri, you can freeze what you don’t use for the next time. I do that all the time, it freezes well.

Try Cuban Congri Rice is Made with Black Bean Too

A very popular version of Cuban congri rice is made with black beans. While it’s a similar cooking process, the flavor is different and relies more on the salt pork. I love this version too, especially with lots of crispy tocino (salt pork) on top!

It felt so good to work on this post! I’ve had quite a few changes in my life during the last year and it caused me to stop blogging altogether.

The last time I was cooking in the kitchen with Mami, I made congri rice and tasajo (recipe coming soon). I thought I’d get to post it back in January, but instead I had to pack all my kitchen stuff for a while. I’ve moved twice during this time and I’m currently in the middle of a kitchen renovation. OMG! 🤯 I have NO KITCHEN right now and haven’t cooked in months.

The process of preparing this post made me feel like my life was getting back to normal. By normal I mean I was going back to a place and activity that makes me feel connected and happy.

Whatever changes, ups and downs life brings, we need to make an effort to stay grounded and connected… with the people, places and things that bring us joy and peace. It’s OK to wander for a bit in the midst of change, in fact, it may be just what you need. But it feels so good to come home again.

Whatever is going on in your life, take the time to feed your soul. You’ll need the nourishment to welcome growth and opportunity. Taking care of yourself is not selfish, it’s the best gift you can give the people you love.