Cuban-inspired food from Key West

A month ago my husband and I were enjoying our honeymoon in Key West. Though we are settling in to married life now, I think both of us are still pining for Florida. For the food mostly, and the cocktails. We had some of the best food while honeymooning in Key West. We ate fresh seafood nearly every meal. Another cuisine that we came to love while in Key West was Cuban food. As you probably know, Cuba is only 90 miles away from Key West and as such there is a huge Cuban influence, especially on the food in the Keys and throughout southern Florida.

Most every morning we began our day with pan Cubano (Cuban toast) and cafe con leche (Cuban coffee with milk) from this little place called the Cuban Coffee Queen. Their slogan is “Drink more Cuban coffee, do stupid things faster.” We got a real kick out of that and we loved the coffee. We’ve been trying desperately to recreate it since we’ve been back home, but it’s not quite the same. I guess everything always tastes better when you’re on vacation.

Cuban dishes are typically served with black beans and rice. One of the places Morgan and I ate

while in Key West, El Meson Del Pepe, had the best black beans we had ever tasted. We begged to know the secret. The server told us that most all Cuban dishes begin with what is known as sofrito, which is sautéed onions, garlic and peppers. The beans also are simmered all day with bay leaves, salt, and a little cumin.

I remember Mamma putting bay leaves in things like soups and stews, but to be honest it’s not a seasoning I use often. I may have to start using it more though, because those beans were out of this world. You wouldn’t think something as simple as black beans could taste so delicious, but they did.

We have fixed some Cuban dishes several times since we’ve been back home. We have cheated, of course, and used black beans from a can instead of simmering them all day.

My mother-in-law came for dinner a few weeks ago and Morgan prepared a Cuban-inspired citrus marinated pork tenderloin with rice and beans. He said a pork tenderloin is one of his new favorite meats. He sliced the pork into pieces and put it in a bag with fresh lime juice. The small tender pieces of meat quickly soak up the citrus flavors and it’s a marinade that doesn’t take very long to prepare.

Although we didn’t cook our beans all day, he did jazz those up a bit with a dash of lime juice and he added some sautéed onions, lime zest and lime juice to the rice as well.


Morgan’s Cuban-inspired citrus marinated pork
Ingredients

• Pork tenderloin, sliced into half inch pieces
• juice of two limes
• juice of one orange
• two to three cloves of garlic, chopped
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper to taste
• tablespoon of olive oil

Directions: Combine juices, garlic and seasonings. Allow pork slices to marinate in mixture for half an hour to an hour. Do not marinate longer than an hour. Remove pork from marinade and sauteed in olive oil pan until browned. Serve with rice and beans.

Honeymoon adventures in Key West

It hardly seems like it can be true, but I will soon be celebrating my one-month wedding anniversary. Is that even a thing? Should we do something special to commemorate being married for only a month? I think we should. Any excuse for cake and champagne I say. At any rate, the old saying “time flies when you’re having fun” is true as always and Morgan and I have been having lots of fun since our wedding. Most especially, we had tons of fun on our honeymoon in Key West, Florida.

Neither of us had ever been to Key West before and we enjoyed it

immensely. If you like tropical places and have never been there, I would highly recommend it. We visited most of the well-known tourist attractions while there including the Shipwreck Museum, the aquarium, the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory and, of course, the home of famed author Ernest Hemingway. I admit I mainly wanted to visit the Hemingway home to see the six-toed cats, but ended up enjoying the tour as well. We had a fantastic tour guide who told wonderful stories about Hemingway and his wives. If you are a fan of the author, cats or just enjoy seeing beautiful homes, this is a definite must-see in Key West.

As you know, Morgan and I love to eat, so another highlight of our trip was the many wonderful meals we shared together. We ate fresh seafood for nearly every meal. I ate so much mahi-mahi I thought I might turn into one! Morgan is more adventurous when it comes to seafood and he ate a variety of different fish including hogfish and grouper.

Upon arriving in Key West the day after our wedding, we left our bags at the hotel and headed out to find some lunch. Our hotel was right near a marina with a boardwalk along which were numerous restaurants and bars. The first one we came to was called Half Shell Raw Bar. It quickly became our favorite place and we ate there at least four times while on our honeymoon.

We were seated right on the dock overlooking the water below where you could see fish swimming by! Diners would occasionally drop a French fry in the water and watch the fish splash around trying to get to the morsel of food first. As soon as we were seated for our first meal in Key West, the server came over and asked what we wanted to drink and were we interested in doing the cocktail challenge and getting a free T-shirt. My new husband and I looked at her in wonder and then looked at each and back at the server to say, challenge accepted!

The signature drink at Half Shell was a shot which included alcohol and a raw oyster. We weren’t quite brave enough to try that, but luckily we were allowed to choose a different drink for the challenge. I told the server I wished I was brave enough to eat raw oysters. She suggested we try their oyster sampler platter which was comprised of baked oysters, two oysters Rockefeller, two oysters in a garlic cream sauce and two in an andouille sausage red sauce. We agreed and that became one of our favorite things we ate during our trip.

I did end up trying a raw oyster later in the trip and liked it, although I confess it was coated in so

much cocktail sauce I probably didn’t taste very much of the oyster. I’ve always had a fascination with oysters though only recently began eating them. There is something very sensual and glamorous about the thought of eating raw oysters right off the shell. Perhaps next time we go I may be brave enough to try eating one right off the shell.

Oysters Rockefeller (Recipe from www.tideandthyme.com)

• 8 Tbsp butter
• 4 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 (10 oz) bag baby spinach
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, finely shredded
• 1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs
• 20 oysters, shucked and on the half-shell

Directions
Preheat oven to 425. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and shallot, and saute until soft and fragrant – about 2 minutes. Pour half of the melted butter mixture into a small bowl and combine with the breadcrumbs. Toss to combine and set aside. To the remainder of the butter in the skillet, add the baby spinach. If it doesn’t all fit, just let it cook down some, and then add more. Season with salt and toss until wilted. Slowly stir in the cream and let reduce for a minute before removing from heat. Carefully place the oysters on a baking sheet. Spoon a small amount of the spinach mixture onto each oyster, then top with about 2 teaspoons of the breadcrumb mixture and a small pinch of Parmesan cheese. Place in oven and bake until oysters have plumped up, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and serve immediately with lemon wedges and hot sauce, if desired.