A Visit to a Cuban Farm and an Organipónico

Of course, you know us; we wondered where food came from in Cuba. We knew that there had been a lot of trade with the Soviet Union prior to their collapse in the '90's; sugar in exchange for, well, just about everything. That meant that after the collapse, Cuba was in a difficult position. But now, there is plenty of food. Here is some of it on the move. We were determined to track it down.


To that end, we asked our hosts at our casa particular if they knew anyone who was growing food, and could arrange to visit. Their nephew lived out in the country, not far from Havana, and he had a friend who was a farmer, so it was arranged that we could go and visit. This is Jorge Feliz Abreo (y?) Malcharde, but everybody calls him Felongo. He has been farming ever since he was young, and he is now a very successful man, especially by Cuban standards.


The soil near Havana - and this farm, near Caimito, is I believe about 20 kilometres out - is very rich and very red, which to me suggests a high iron content. This field has been recently planted with alternating rows of tomatoes and plantains. The tomatoes will produce this year, while the plantains get established. Next year, the plantains will be large, and start to produce. This kind of time-based interplanting seems to be fairly common.


Felongo was quite exasperated about the age of his equipment, and was surprised when I told him a lot of Canadian farmers don't necessarily have anything much newer. In Cuba it is not available at any price, but in Canada the price is out of reach of many.


This is our old buddy malanga. What a beautiful plant it is! And it seems to grow everywhere and at every season. Cubans are not always as enthusiastic about it as I was, no doubt in part because of these qualities. It's a bland, starchy root, and one of the first solid foods given to babies. I suspect people saw an awful lot of it during the special period.

This patch is growing in one of the hedgerows, which were also full of various fruiting trees, although almost all of them were not fruiting or flowering at the moment, it being the driest and coolest part of the year.



This is Emilio, one of the farmhands. Felongo was too busy to walk out to the bean field we wanted to see, as it was about 700 metres away from the farm-house, so he asked Emilio to take us.


And these are the beans. They were a standard Cuban variety of black beans, the kind seen at just about every meal in the form of beans and rice, or Christians and Moors as it is also known.
They were expected to be ready and drying out by the end of February (this was early January) at which point the plants would be pulled up, piled in a heap and either threshed by hand or run over with equipment of some kind, if it was available, and then the beans gathered up. This process would take 5 or 6 men 3 or 4 days.


Emilio shows us a seed malanga root. The field to his side had been planted until recently in malangas, but it had been harvested about a week ago. The largest malangas had been sold, and the smallest roots saved for re-planting. They were stored in loosely woven nylon bags in an airy shed to keep them sound. They will, of course, be planted in a different field next time.


Here are some of the bags of malangas in the shed, carefully placed for good air circulation.



In the complex of sheds there were a number of rabbits in cages. I though suspending them was a clever idea - it makes cleaning up after them a lot easier. There were a lot of small meat animals in Cuba that we saw. Rabbits were slightly unusual, but only slightly. Chickens and turkeys were common. Goats were everywhere. None of these things (except chicken) showed up on any tourist menus that I saw; it was always pork, chicken, pork, shrimp, pork, pork, fish, and a small amount of beef. And pork, did I say?


Here's some of that pork. Like the rabbits, these piglets were in a raised pen to allow for better sanitation and easy cleaning. The pigs themselves were an interesting and attractive landrace rather than a specific breed. Felongo mentioned that he had had Canadian pork. He started off by saying it looked so good - and then he added, and it tastes of nothing. What could I say? He has it nailed, unless you go directly to a farmer who is raising it properly.



I was amazed and excited to see this as we drove back and forth between Havana and Cienfuegos. Yes! It's rice! There seemed to be a few Vietnamese names near the rice fields, so I suspect this is a joint international project. Rice is a huge staple in Cuban cuisine, but I don't think much is grown in Cuba. We didn't see a lot of rice being grown, although on the trip back I realized there was more than I thought - about three-quarters of the rice fields were dry and fallow at the moment, and often had cattle in them, eating the stubble. This makes sense; as I've said it was the dry season. But you could tell the fields by the stubble, and the embankments around them. I guess people were just starting to replant for a new season.



We had heard much about the small urban vegetable gardens which provide a lot of food for Cubans nowadays. We also saw number of people growing vegetables in their yards, but only in the more suburban areas, of course, as the older denser parts of the cities really don't have any yards. Patios, yes, but they are usually paved and designed to be shady anyway. But here was somebody quite serious about their tomatoes.


After spending an afternoon in Havana looking for Organipónicos and not finding any we were a bit crestfallen. But once we were back in Cienfuegos we took a stroll from our new casa particular and were thrilled to find we were walking right by one! We chatted with someone there, and arranged to come back first thing in the morning for a tour. This is a large organipónico, with 1600 square metres of fixed beds, and an additional 1 1/2 hectares of fields.

La Calzada was a neighbourhood on the outskirts of the north-east of downtown Cienfuegos, and the further out you went along this road, the more organipónicos there were. I believe this was on Calle 60; a busy road serviced by a constant stream of horse-drawn taxis. I also noticed that all those taxis had by-product containment systems (aka shitcatchers) and I imagine that the contents get put to good use.


A couple of the workers were harvesting lettuce, and tieing it in bundles with short bits of telephone wire. We were told there are a large number of varieties of lettuce, but all we saw was a fairly straightforward mid-green softish leaf lettuce. It made a good foil to the ubiquitous cabbage which was the other half of the foundation of every salad we were served.

These kind of vegetables - mostly ones we are quite familiar with here - need to be kept relatively cool and well watered, and so are shaded with a plastic mesh, and grown in fixed beds. Garlic chives are planted along the edges of most of the beds, and clipped regularly and sold, but they also double as insect repellants.


Cubans use large numbers of chiles (peppers) in their cooking, but I would say 99% of them or more are very mild and sweet. The taste for spicy food so prevalent in the rest of the Caribbean and Central America has completely passed them by. I was very much reminded of the food we had in Spain, although with the addition of tropical produce, especially the excellent fruit.


In addition to malanga, another thing I really loved was fried plantains (tostones). I could eat them all night and all day. Happily, they showed up regularly. Here are some nearing maturity, planted in a hedgerow between the more pampered organipónico crops and the field crops.


These are sweet potatoes. We only had sweet potatoes once while we were in Cuba, which I regret very much because the ones we had were absolutely superb. Of course we had them in the form of french-fries, which only adds to my enthusiasm, but they were a pale straw yellow and a bit starchier than most we get here, and just beautifully flavoured in addition to being great for fries.


A fallow field, and more sweet potatoes. It was still quite early in the morning, as you can see by the shadows, but getting warm quickly. This farm had originally been run by Chinese people, but had been abandoned during or after the revolution. (I was not quite able to put together what happened to the Chinese in Cuba. There were once very many, now there are very few. They left, is the official story. It may even be true, who knows?)


Carlos Telles Machado, who gave us the tour and who is the boss of this particular organipónico, and I had a little mutual enthuse over malanga, and then he showed us one of his other favourite things; a kind of bean that grows on large bushes in the hedgerows. Excellent dried in rice as well as fresh and green, he assured us, and gave me a handful of them. Ready in 5 months, he said. I brought them home, so we will see if I can manage to grow them by starting them early indoors. A little research told me that they are, in fact, pigeon peas.


By the end of the tour, the little market booth at the front was being opened, and we bought a few veggies to eat in our little apartment. I was going to buy some vinegar too, but it turned out it wasn't vinegar in those bottles - it was homemade wine. Controls on alcohol sales seem to be pretty much nil in Cuba, but it seems like it's mostly just the tourists who make idiots of themselves.



This was at a farm we stopped at out in the country to ask for some directions. As usual there was poultry running around, including these multi-coloured turkeys which interested me very much, as turkeys here in Canada tend to be highly overbred, and consequently not at all self-sufficient.


The other thing I was amazed to discover, is that most of the shrimp (and langosta, usually called lobster) we had been offered on various menus was farmed! I think of farmed shrimp as being terrible; bland and soggy. Certainly all the stuff we get here from Asia is very bad, not to mention notoriously unenvironmentally sound. But the Cuban shrimp tasted wild; firm, sweet and flavourful. I ate it almost at every opportunity. You can't tell from a roadside view, but this farm also did not seem to have done much if any environmental damage, being located on a rocky sea-side as it was.


The main building had this very cute and stylish shrimp sculpture out front, about which I have nothing to say except that it, like just about all the food I ate in Cuba, put a big smile on my face. I left very impressed by the hard work and ingenuity that has gone into solving Cuba's food situation, and I hope to go back soon.

Citrus & Ginger Beet Slaw

This was a ridiculously easy to make little salad, and very tasty too. Raw beets are still something of a novelty to me, but they are surprisingly crisp and refreshing and worth doing as a regular thing.

I used a small blood orange for the orange in the salad, and used a second one to garnish it, which I do recommend. Actually, I wonder how this would be with grapefruit. Pretty good, I would think - must experiment. I still have half a bag of beets left, since that was the only way I could find Ontario beets being sold. *Shakes fist at grocery store.*

4 servings
45 minutes - 15 minutes prep time



1/4 teaspoon finely grated lime zest
1/4 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
1/2 teaspoon finely grated peeled fresh ginger
1 teaspoon honey
the juice of 1 small orange (I used a blood orange)
the juice of 1 medium lime
1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large or 3 medium beets (2 cups when grated)

Grate the lime and orange zest and the ginger into a bowl that will eventually hold everything. Mix in the honey, orange and lime juices and salt, stirring until the honey and salt are dissolved.

Peel the beets, leaving the rough skin at the top on. It will give you something to hold onto. Grate the beets into the bowl of dressing, and discard the tops once your fingers are in danger.

Toss the grated beets with the dressing, and let marinate for about 30 minutes before serving. This will also keep overnight in the fridge.




Last year at this time I made Quinoa Pilaf and Ginger Marinated Carrots & Turnips. Yes, there seems to be something about the middle of winter that makes me want ginger in my raw veggies.

Yes, It's That Time Again...

Good seeds, and true, you must have if your garden is to attain that highest success which should be our aim. Seeds vary greatly - very much more so than the beginner has any conception of. There are three essentials; if seeds fail in any one of them, they will be rendered next to useless. First, they must be true; selected from good types of stock and true to name; then they must have been good, strong, plump seeds, full of life and gathered from healthy plants; and finally, they must be fresh. It is therefore of vital importance that you procure the best seeds that can be had, regardless of cost. Poor seeds are dear at any price; you cannot afford to accept them as a gift. It is, of course, impossible to give a rule by which to buy good seed, but the following suggestions will put on the safe track. First, purchase only of some reliable mail-order house; do not be tempted, either by convenience or cheapness, to the gaily lithographed packets displayed in grocery and hardware stores at planting time - as a rule they are not reliable; and what you want for your good money is good seed, not cheap ink. Second, buy of seedsmen who make a point of growing and testing their own seed. Third, to begin with, buy from several houses and weed out to the one which proves, by actual results, to be the most reliable.

from Home Vegetable Gardening, by Frederick Frye Rockwell, 1911

Yes, it's time to be ordering your seeds, if you haven't already! We just finished up this week, leaving only the potatoes and sweet potatoes to be determined. I've said a lot about ordering seeds before, here and here, and I won't get into describing all the seed suppliers again. Go and check them out through the links..

Once again, let me draw your attention to the Seeds of Diversity site. Their list of available varieties in Canada is a wonderful resource.

We are definitely slowing down on the ordering of 60 gazillion different seeds each year; after 3 years gardening some distinct favourites are starting to emerge. Also, we bought a lot of seed last year and still have much of it. The big exception is beans; the heirloom varieties tend to come in small packets. I would have saved seed, but we had a bean virus in the garden last year, so we are ordering new this year. And of course, there are always a few things we just have to try.

From Heritage Harvest, we are trying a lot of beans: Desoronto Potato Bean, Dolloff Bean, Mennonite Purple Striped (a local heirloom for me!), Annelino Yellow and Early Riser. We're also going to have a go at Listada de Gandia eggplant, Weaver's Mennonite Stuffing pepper, and Gaspé Flint corn.

From Cottage Gardener, we are getting Cherokee Trail of Tears bean, Chervena Chuska, Sweet Chocolate, Fish, and Orange Thai peppers, Guatamalan Blue squash, Patisson Panache Verte et Jaune summer squash, Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon, Country Gentleman and Double Standard corn and Australian Brown onions.

From Annapolis Seeds we are getting First & Best #2 and Misty peas, Purple Peacock beans, Musquee de Provence and White Bush Lebanese squash. We just sent him off a cheque, but I notice he is getting set up to start taking PayPal orders which will make things much easier there.

From Prairie Garden Seeds, True Red Cranberry and Grandma Nellie's beans, St. Hubert dried peas, Costata Romanesco squash, Orchard Baby and Simonet corn.

From Ontario Seed Company, Chioggia and Early Wonder beets (starting to look like staples for us), Sweetness III carrots, Hollow Crown Improved parnips, White Vienna Kohlrabi, and our old fave, Early Yellow Globe onions.

From William Dam, Spaghetti Squash, Sun Sugar tomatoes, Groninger Blue leaf cabbage (like collards, I guess), Imperial Star artichokes, DeCicco broccoli, and Harris' Model parsnips.

The main new seed supplier for us this year is Hope Seeds in Nova Scotia, from whom we have ordered Red Express cabbage, Jaune de Doubs carrot, Gilfeather rutabaga, Golden Midget watermelon (totally an impulse purchase) and Golden Grex beets (ditto). They have some very interesting stuff here, including a lot of east-coast heirlooms. Our main object here was to get the Red Express cabbage. We got seeds for it last year from Greta's Organic Seeds, but alas, not a one germinated. Hope it's not a system-wide problem.

That just left King of the Garden lima beans from Stokes (had to throw in some Painted Mountain corn and Jersey Giant asparagus too), and Santa Clara Canner tomatoes from Upper Canada Seeds.

So you see, this year we are really restraining ourselves on the new variety front! Hardly a single new, experimental item! So, yeah, when you stop laughing here are some more links for you, to my latest time-waster: old gardening books on line. The following 4 are probably worth dipping into:

The Plain Path to Good Gardening, by Samuel Wood. (1871)

Vegetable Gardening, by Samuel B. Green. (First published in 1901.)

Vegetable Gardening, Ralph, L. Watts (First published in 1911; also, written as a textbook and more technical and detailed than the others.)

Sweet Potato Culture, James Fritz, (1886) Short and, er, sweet!

Oh hey, and let me add: Squashes, and How to Grow Them, James J. H. Gregory, 1867.

And also, The Field & Garden Vegetables of America, Fearing Burr, 1865

What exciting things are you growing this year? Seriously, I'd like to hear!

Frazier White Sweet Potato

We grew 2 kinds of sweet potatoes last summer. I have to say neither of them did well but it was our first time growing sweet potatoes, and the beginning of the summer was definitely not good growing weather for them. I understand that most of the bulking up of the roots takes place right at the end of the growing season, and if it is shortened in any way you will lose a lot of volume. I assume that is what happened. From 12 slips, we got 11 pounds.

However, we did get enough to try them out. These Frazier White sweet potatoes were a new variety for us. We found them very interesting. I expected them to be a bit plainer and starchier than the usual sweet potatoes, but they were neither. They were very sweet, although somewhat mild tasting. They were not quite such a nice colour when cooked, turning a little yellowy-brown - you can see them on top of the Shepherd's Pie I made with them - but fine, really. I would grow them again in the hope of a better harvest next time.

Sweet potatoes need a long growing season, warm and moist for best results, although sweet potatoes are quite drought resistant. Frazier White has a 90 to 105 day growing season, which means timing to get them in must be just right: not too early, but as early as possible to ensure the time required. Next year, I think we will probably cover our sweet potatoes with a hoop house for the first couple of weeks at least. As far as sweet potatoes go, that is a fairly short growing season.

One of our two sweet potatoes bloomed steadily for us this summer, and one did not. I was quite surprised since William Woys Weaver commented in his book, Heirloom Vegetable Gardening, that he had never had a sweet potato bloom in many years of growing them in Pennsylvania. Alas, I no longer recall which one bloomed and which one didn't, but I think it was Georgia Jet and not Frazier White. If they had both bloomed, there might have been seed, which is how new varieties of sweet potatoes are produced. Backyard hybrids are common in the U.S. south, and it is probable that that is the origin of Frazier White.

Frazier White is generally described as an heirloom sweet potato, but I can find no trace of its origins. It is not, as far as I can see on a quick perusal, mentioned by that name in James Fitz's 1886 book Sweet Potato Culture.

Curried Shepherds Pie with Sweet Potato Topping

Our sweet potatoes did not produce all that much last year, but we are eating them and they are good. Next year we will try to grow more of them. We grew 2 kinds, a fairly standard orange one and a white one called Frazier White. They do taste slightly different, although just as good as the darker ones. You can certainly use whatever sweet potatoes you like for this.

The Jamaican curry is something I picked up last time I was in Toronto and I'm enjoying it very much. Mine is quite mild, so you may wish to adjust the amount of curry powder you put in, depending on what you are able to get.

4 servings
1 3/4 hours - 1 hour prep time


Make the Sweet Potato Topping:
1 1/2 kilos (3 pounds) sweet potatoes
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Wash the sweet potatoes, and stab them with a fork. Bake for about 45 minute to 1 hour, until soft. Let them cool enough to handle, then peel and mash with the butter and salt. Meanwhile...

Make the Filling:
1 cup diced celeriac
1 large onion
2 medium carrots
2 cups frozen corn
500 grams (1 pound) ground beef
1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil
2 tablespoons Jamaican or other mild curry powder
1/2 teaspoon rubbed thyme
1 teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste

Peel and dice the celeriac, onion and carrots. Set the corn out to thaw.

Heat the oil in a large skillet and crumble in the beef. Cook until browned, stirring occasionally. Add the celeriac, onion and carrots, and continue cooking and stirring until they are softened and browned in spots as well. Add the seasonings and cook for another few minutes. Turn off the heat and mix in the corn.

Put the beef and vegetables into an 8" x 11" baking pan, and top with the mashed sweet potatoes. Return to the oven and bake for 30 minutes to an hour and a quarter, until lightly browned and bubbling. (Baking time will depend on whether it goes straight in or whether you allow it to cool, and refrigerate it before proceeding.)




Last year at this time I made Cocoa Oatmeal, Dried Corn Baked with Cream & Cheese and Ambrosia.

Buying Food in Cuba

As anyone who knows us will suppose, everytime we found a market we went into it. This was the first one, in Cinefuegos. It was the largest market in town, the one we were directed to when we asked about it. We actually only found one other large market in Cienfuegos, out in the eastern suburbs on Calle 60.

I was still a bit shy about taking pictures of people at this point, but do you see the 2 people in Tilley hats in the middle of the photo? It turned out they were Canadians from Edmonton, there with a class full of agriculture students who were all snapping away, so we blended in quite well! We chatted about their itinerary with them and were green with envy.


In Havana, there were smaller markets all over the place. Many of them seemed to operate on a communal basis, with what appeared to be the produce of 4 or 5 farms set up each on their own table. The actual produce didn't vary a huge amount from place to place.


This was one of the larger markets we found in Havana, actually in El Vedado. (The main part of Havana is divided into 3 main sections, from east to west; Old Havana, Central Havana, and El Vedado. Miramar is further to the west, and then it's all surrounded by lots of small suburbs.)

Look at those eggplants! We never actually saw a one cooked while we were there. I think perhaps people think tourists don't like them, and I'm afraid that's probably a fairly safe assumption. People complain about the food being very plain in Cuba, but I suspect after a few bad experiences people feeding tourists also stick to the tried and true.


Next to the main market was a government food depot, where people picked up food using their ration cards. Rice, beans, sugar, oil, vinegar, salt, milk and so forth were sold at very cheap prices here.


There wasn't any vegetables or fruit in the government market; for that you needed the regular market. There was a great selection: plantains, bananas, papaya and guava, onions and garlic, cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, malanga, yucca, sweet potatoes and more. No mango, it wasn't mango season. I don't know what else wasn't in season. This is the cool and dry part of the year, and so winter in so far as there is one.


Another, smaller market in Havana. We bought a pineapple for 5 pesos (about 20 cents) and 5 pesos seemed to be a typical price for units of vegetables (ie. one pineapple, a can full of peppers, one pound of malanga, etc.) In general I'd say that equates to about 1/10th of the price we pay for vegetables here; very roughly of course. You have to remember though, that Cuban incomes are generally no where near 1/10th of what they are here, so for Cubans these prices are high. Not high enough to stop people from buying though; all the markets we saw of any size seem to do a pretty brisk business.


I was surprised to see how many people were selling already cut up vegetables. I had always supposed them to be a sign of effete western capitalist decadence, but I have to admit they were a good thing in Cuba. Kitchen utensils are very hard to get, and most kitchens pretty basic. They were certainly popular.


Yet another little market. I see some stacks of yummy guava jam in there. I have to say I loved all the fruit in Cuba, and it was so nice to be able to eat it and other raw produce without untoward repercussions.


Some produce heads in from an organiponico in the suburbs to restock one of those little town markets. By motorized vehicle? Not a chance. Hey look! Carrots and beets. We didn't actually see them a lot, apart from a little carrot in salads occasionally. We got served radishes once, to my surprise. No surprise, they weren't any good. Not a vegetable adapted to growing in Cuba, I wouldn't think.


The markets ranged in size from quite large to little booths like this one. You could also often buy produce from people walking around selling it out of a small cart or bag, as with this woman. She was somewhat unusual; most of the mobile sellers were male.



When my father was in Cuba at the end of the special period, he came back commenting on how skinny everyone was. Not so much any more. People were rarely fat, and the lack of motorized vehicles keep them generally pretty fit as well. However, people seemed mostly well feed and even occasionally well padded. The organiponico system and other farm reforms seem to be making a difference, along with increased tourism.

General Comments About Food in Cuba

So we had a great time in Cuba. We both loved it a lot, especially the people. I hardly met a one who wasn't awfully nice, even the ones who tried to scam us. (It is definitely a bit trying to be a tourist in a third world country. We were obviously foreign, and so obviously rich, and therefore we were targets for constant sales pitches and scam attempts.) In spite of that, as I said, we loved it. It was so warm, so sunny, and the architecture was beautiful.

We had been told by a lot of people before we left that the food in Cuba is bad. Not true! We were told the food is plain, and repetitive. That is true. Of course it varied a bit from place to place depending on who was cooking and what they were charging, but in general we ate well. My sister-in-law described Cuban food to us before we left as "very food-like". She was right.

We started off every breakfast, as above with plates of fresh fruit, peeled and sliced and presented without further embelishment. Why would it need it? It was lovely fruit.


In addition to fruit breakfast included hot coffee with hot milk, and toast or pastries. This casa particular, in Havana, (en el Vedado) provided some pretty fancy little pastries, different ones every day from a bakery. As far as I could see, there was next to no home baking in Cuba. Very few people have ovens. On this day there was also guava paste. The other places we were at just supplied toast and jam. Then, everyone offered eggs, usually as an omelet but your choice. After a few days Mom and I had to drop the eggs. They were just too much.


Something I had never had before is Malanga. It is more commonly known as eddoes in English, and it is very much like taro. Here Mr. Ferdzy is about to eat some malanga fritters in one of the fancier restaurants we went to. But most Cubans don't do anything fancy with malanga, and don't regard it as anything special. It's pretty common, and I suspect it's always relatively cheap and available, meaning it gets eaten a lot regardless of how you feel about it. A bit like Canadians used to be with rutabaga.


This is an absolutely typical Cuban meal, as served to tourists, anyway. It starts with fried meat (top right corner), rice and beans, boiled malanga, tostones (fried plantain), more rice and beans, and sliced tomatoes and peppers. Lightly marinated onions are used as a garnish. All of these items came up again and again, with minor variations. I loved the tostones, and this was one of the best malanga dishes we had. It had been cut in pieces and simply boiled, but in salted water which gave it a better flavour than most we had.


This was an absolutely typical salad. There was always shredded cabbage and leaf lettuce, and tomatoes. Then there was often onions, cucumber and/or carrots. This one also had canned beans, which we got a few times in salads. Dressing was always oil and vinegar, salt and pepper. I have read a number of comments claiming there isn't any pepper in Cuba. In fact there was always ground pepper at every table I ate at, but it wasn't black pepper, it was white pepper, so I think a lot of people are simply failing to recognize it. Salads were consistently fresh and good, and it was a pleasure to be able to eat them, and all the fruits, without fear of danger due to bad water quality.


The seafood was fantastic. This was grilled shrimp and lobster tails, along with a few tostones. The shrimp were superb. The lobsters were more like giant shrimp than like Canadian lobsters, and my Mom and Mr. Ferdzy both liked them better than Canadian lobsters. Heretics! Ingrates! Traitors! Although I admit I'd be very happy to eat either.


At one point we stayed in a small apartment that had a "kitchen" and I had a go at doing some cooking myself. There was a single burner hot-plate, with a choice of hot, hotter and hottest, so my efforts at cooking rice with vegetables were a bit fraught. I did manage to produce something edible and even tasty, but it was touch and go. The above is a really typical market selection. There were large white onion, small red onions, and garlic everywhere. Perhaps half a dozen common peppers, almost all sweet. And those tomatoes were really quite ripe. For some reason the Cuban tomatoes we got were generally redder on the inside than on the outside. We confirmed there are a number of varieties of tomato grown in Cuba, but the ones we had were all very similar in flavour; acidic and juicy but not seedy. Very nice, actually.


In addition to buying almost all their baked goods - and I can't tell you how many times I saw people walking down the street carrying a cake - on a plate, not wrapped - there were food vendors all over the place. This guy is selling a selection of small pastries I believe.

We talked about what kind of business we would have if we were Cubans. (Yes, we are weird.) We decided that home-made potato chips would be the way to go. We did see ONE guy in Havana selling home-made chips and popcorn, but only the one, and after we had come to our conclusion. But we saw people roaming the streets selling all kinds of things, from yucca, beans, strings of onions and garlics, to breads and pastries.


The national dish of Cuba seems to be pizza. There are little shops all over the place, many of them out of what is someones front living room. This one was near our apartment in Cienfuegos, and had exceptionally good pizza. Also a common item to sell out of your front room was ice-cream. We got some for 4 pesos a scoop. Yes, it was a small scoop. But dudes... that's 14 cents. (I wont' get into the money here, but there's 2 kinds of money in Cuba: real pesos, used by the locals, and soak-us-we're-tourists money, known as C.U.C.s. Hijinks and hilarity ensues.)


A peek inside. Unfortunately I was at the wrong time to get them coming out of the oven. Very plain; little sauce, no seasoning, just a sprinkling of cheese. And yet, very tasty somehow! And the price was hard to beat. I believe these might have been about 12 pesos - about 48 cents. A bit more expensive than average - they seemed to run from 7 pesos to about 12.


More shrimp! I ate them at every opportunity. I was surprised to discover they were likely farmed. They were firm, sweet and flavourful, everything I associate with wild shrimp. Definitely not like the farmed shrimp which we get here in Canada, which are always bland and soggy. I have given up getting shrimp here at all, they are always such a disappointment. These ones were in a lovely sauce, with sour orange juice and tomato sauce. They were described as "camarones enchiladas" meaning shrimp in chile sauce. The chiles are plainly very sweet mild ones; and this is nothing like a Mexican enchilada sauce.


And there were are, eating the shrimp. We went out for a day trip towards the end, and Jorge, our taxi driver, took the picture. He brought us to this restaurant because he and his family had stayed at a nearby resort, and he had eaten here before. An excellent choice! Many thanks to Jorge, Cesar, Janila, Acelo, Felongo, Emilio, Carlos, Jorbel, Eduardo, Tania and Adrian, and all the many other Cubans whos names have escaped me, who's kindness and generosity made our trip such a pleasure.

Irish Potato Scones

Well, we've been back from Cuba for a week, and I'm having a hard time getting back into regular life, but it's time to start making the attempt. I have to say I loved Cuba, and am already plotting how we can go back. I will also have a few posts to put up about it this week, I hope.

Meanwhile, there's still a ton of potatoes in the basement. I've made Scottish Potato Scones before. These are similiar, having less flour and so retaining a consistency half-way between a vegetable dish and a bread, where the Scottish ones are definitely bread-y. I can never decide which ones I like better, but it depends how I'm eating them I guess. I obviously don't peel my potatoes before I mash them, although of course you can if you want. These could have been a bit browner in my opinion, but I didn't have any bacon fat and had to use oil. I think it doesn't crisp up as nicely without the bacon fat, but these were still good.

12 scones
30 minutes - prep time, not including cooking the potatoes


2 cups mashed potatoes
1/4 to 3/4 teaspoon salt
2 medium shallots OR 1 small onion
2 tablespoons butter
1 extra-large egg
2/3 cup soft unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon bacon fat OR vegetable oil

The potatoes should be boiled, mashed and cooled; in other words leftover is fine, although they should not be too laden with butter and milk and so a bit on the stiff side. That's a good quantity of potato to be left over too, so it is best to plan in advance and set 2 cups of potatoes aside when they are first made.

Peel and mince the shallots or onion, and cook them gently in the butter until soft but not browned. Let cool and add to the potatoes.

Meanwhile, add the egg, flour and baking powder to the potatoes. Once the shallots go in, mix well. The result should be a stiff but workable dough; if not you may need to add a bit more flour.

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Pat the dough out on a well-floured surface, using plenty of flour to dust your hands and the dough, to prevent sticking. It should be a scant half-inch, or about a centimetre, thick. Place on an oiled baking tray (or parchment paper on a baking tray) and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until firm and lightly browned around the edges. Best eaten hot, but perfectly acceptable when cold.




Last year at this time I made Belgian Endive with Blood Oranges & Honey and Mashed Celeriac with Buttery Leeks.

German Butterball Potatoes

I've been hearing about these potatoes for several years, so this spring when Eagle Creek had some for sale we decided it was time to give them a try. I'm glad we did! This is an excellent potato.

German Butterballs are a late season potato, ready in 120 days or so. I have to say, ours went on and on and on - they took much longer than our Russet Burbanks to die down and I think if the weather had not started to get cold they could have gone on growing even longer.

Like the Russet Burbanks, we grew them in a raised box, and covered them with soil as they grew, in the hopes of producing a bumper crop. You can read about that process here. The German Butterballs produced 88 pounds of potatoes in the box, compared to at least 100 pounds for the same amount of Russets planted. That was, I believe, 2 kilos of seed potatoes (hard to believe it was 2 pounds, but they don't have their package size listed at the moment, and I can't find my receipt. Anybody know?) Edited: Eagle Creek have their sizes back up again, and it WAS 2 pounds (1 kilo). Amazing!

At any rate, it's hard to complain about a harvest like that, even though I did feel like there was an awful lot of dirt in the box in proportion to the amount of potato. They seemed to form potatoes at the bottom, where the original potato was planted, and at the top near the soil, but not in between, unlike the Russet Burbanks which were scattered throughout the soil.

The German Butterball plants were extremely rampant. They grew all down the sides of their growing box and pretty much engulfed the next-door blueberry bed. They had white flowers and produced more seed-balls than I have ever seen on any of the other potatoes I've grown. I've saved a few in the hopes of starting some potatoes from true seed, and seeing what I get. They are said to be disease resistant.

As for the potatoes themselves, the name is very apt. They are a roundish to slightly elongated, mid-sized potato, although somewhat variable in size. The flesh is a bright yellow, the skins are a slightly russeted beige. We are having some trouble telling them apart from the Russet Burbanks until we cut them, although in general the Russet Burbanks are larger and longer. They are compared by some people to Yukon Gold potatoes because of their colour, but I consider them a far superior potato. (Not hard. Yukon Gold have a strange, sweetish flavour that I really quite dislike.) Everyone who has eaten them around here has enthused over them, including me. They are really delicious. They are also very versatile, good for baking, boiling, mashing and frying. I'm told they store well, although that has yet to be seen.

German Butterball is described as an heirloom potato, but it is very hard to find anything about its history. Apparently it was introduced to commerce in 1988 by David Ronniger, of Ronnigers Potatoes, but I can find no further information.

Flan de Coco

Flan is THE quintessential hispanic dessert, and in tropical climes it has picked up a few twists... like coconut. Very yummy. And also very, very rich. Smallish portions are probably indicated.

Caramel is pretty easy to make. The big secret is not to stir it once it gets cooking, but don't leave it alone as it will turn colour very quickly once it goes.

8 to 12 servings
2 hours - 30 minutes prep time


Make the Caramel:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

If you can, put the sugar and water right in the flan mold and cook it directly on the stove. If your flan mold is not able to do that, put the sugar and water into a large pot. Stir once to dissolve, then cook without stirring again but watching it constantly, until it turns a deep golden brown. Either swirl it around the flan pan until it sets, or rapidly pour it into your flan pan, and swirl it around until it sets. It will set quite rapidly.



Make the Flan:
1 1/2 cups unsweetened shredded dessicated coconut
2 398 ml tins coconut milk
plus light cream to make 4 cups
8 extra-large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup dark rum

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Put a large shallow baking tray in the oven, and pour water into it, allowing for the fact that you must put in the flan tin - so it must fit in - and the water should not be so much that it would overflow once you add the flan tin.

Put the dessicated coconut into the caramelized flan tin, spreading it out fairly evenly.

Pour the coconut milk into a 4 cup measure, and add light cream to make 4 cups - probably about half a cup or so of cream.

Whisk together the eggs, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl, then mix in the coconut milk and cream. Mix in the vanilla and rum. Pour this into the prepared flan tin.

Place the flan tin carefully into the tray of water in the oven. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 and one half hours, until golden brown on top, and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely. Set the flan tin into a dish of very hot water, and run a knife carefully around the edges. Jiggle it a little, and once you can see it is loose, put a serving dish with a lip (to catch the sauce) over the top of the flan tin, and turn it over quickly. Ta da! Coconut flan.

Picadillo

This simple, hash-like dish is quick, easy and inexpensive. Again with the olive and raisin combination, this time maybe with eggs, which I always think of as being a very Chilean combination. Maybe it's actually Spanish, although I can't say I came across it in Spain. Maybe I was in the wrong places though. It certainly seems to be a thing.

4 to 6 servings
1 hour prep time



2 medium onions
1 large green pepper
4 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
2 cups chopped tomatoes
2 or 3 tablespoons tomato paste

500 grams (1 pound) ground beef
250 grams (1/2 pound) ground pork or chopped ham
salt & pepper
2 teaspoons cumin seed, ground
1 1/2 teaspoons rubbed oregano
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons sherry

2 medium potatoes
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup stuffed green olives, chopped
4 to 6 eggs (optional)

Peel and chop the onions. Wash, destem and deseed and chop the pepper. Peel and mince the garlic.

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Cook the onions and pepper gently, until softened and reduced. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two, until fragrant. Add the tomatoes and tomato paste. Continue cooking for about 10 minutes, until well amalgamated.

Crumble the beef and pork into the sofrito (the mixture in the pan) and add the seasonings, sherry vinegar, and sherry. Simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently and breaking up any large clumps of meat.

Meanwhile, wash and dice the potatoes, and boil them until barely tender. Drain them and add them to the picadillo. Add the raisins and the olive, roughly chopped.

Serve the picadillo over steamed rice and if you like, top each serving with a fried or poached egg.




Last year at this time I made soup with Blue Pod Capucijners.