While recent changes in U.S. policy have made it easier to travel to Cuba, a tourist-style summer vacation to the island nation is still off-limits for most of us. But one needn’t leave home to enjoy the delectable flavors of Cuba with The Cuban Table by Ana Sofia Pelaez and Ellen Silverman (St. Martin’s Press, $35).
Pelaez searched Cuba, New York and her native Miami to gather recipes from family, friends and friends of friends, and restaurant, lunch counter and shop owners. What emerges from the stories behind those recipes (often copied from tattered cookbooks carried from Cuba as families fled) is a portrait of an inventive, resourceful people. Photographer Silverman, through her soulful images, is a full partner in the chronicling. Recipes from croquetas and cafe Cubano to ropa vieja reflect the Spanish, French, Creole and African influences, like the fricases which “came to Cuba from France by way of Haiti,” along the way picking up verve from citrus and sofrito.