South American breakfast meat dish

Cafe Society
1

I’m looking for the name of a South American breakfast specialty, that I had once, and I can’t find from its description by Googling.

As best I can remember, its meat – either pork or possibly beef, cut into slices and stewed with a sauce, maybe sweet, but not obviously tomato, or maybe tomato flavor is just subtle.

Its name means, literally, “scraps of cloth”, in whatever language its from. Apparently, the myth is, some poor man was boiling his clothes to clean them, got unexpected guests, prayed that he not be embarrassed, and God turned his clothes into food. Which is cool if that’s what you want, but inconvenient if you’re not careful exactly when you ask for it. That’s just the backstory of the name, that’s not a useful method for making it.

Anyway, I need the name, to look up the recipe, and recipes for breakfast meats from South America are hard to find online.

2

Ropa Vieja?

3

That would be my guess.

Here’s a slow cooker recipe.

4

Thanks guys, now that you wrote it, I remember it. And to think I thought it might possibly have been too obscure for the SDMB. I’m silly like that sometimes.

5

Yeah, ropa vieja. There’s tomato in the braising liquid, but it doesn’t dominate. And the vinegar is a nice touch.

Great stuff; I haven’t made it in a few years. If you use flank steak (low in fat) you can even convince your women to eat it.

Definitely a dinner dish, served over rice with black or pinto beans on the side. Although you could have the leftovers for tomorrow’s breakfast — treat it like hash, and put a couple of poached or gently fried eggs over it.

6

My small town has recently acquired a Cuban cafe and this is one of their most popular dishes.

7

Literally “old clothes” in Spanish. It’s more Caribbean than South American, especially Cuban but also popular in Puerto Rico and part of the traditional fare here in Panama. I like it a lot. It’s more typical for dinner than breakfast, however.

8

What do people familiar with the dish think of that crockpot recipe linked above? I’m tempted to try it - it’s easy and I usually have the ingredients on hand.

9

I like that recipe. But beware of the rice they suggest. Mahatma Yellow Rice has close to 1000mg of sodium in it!

10

Here is the recipe I use, my husband and I love it. I add more olives than the recipe states.

11

That sounds easy and delicious, and I have all the ingredients except for the flank steak and that’s easy to find. TYVM!

12

Update: Got some flank steak at the grocery store down the road, and I’ll probably make it this weekend.

Here’s an Instant Pot recipe, for those of you who would rather do that.

13

How tender does the beef become. I have partial dentures, some things are not easy to eat

14

The beef collapses into rags, hence the name. You can enjoy it with a mouthful of gums.

15

I made mine in the Instant Pot, and while the meat did not come apart, it’s still delicious. I have a bowl of it in front of me right now.

16

Update: I think I overdid it with the green olives. Next time, I probably won’t use them at all. Otherwise, it was very good. I ate it over rice. :slight_smile: