I traveled to Cuba a few years back and had some of the best food imaginable. One staple dish stuck out more than the rest, and that was ropa vieja. I had multiple variations of it, and when I returned home, I began to experiment. I went through roughly five trials before coming to this recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 beef flank steak (2 pounds)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1/2 cup dry vermouth
• 1/2 cup dry red wine or additional beef broth
• 1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 1 large carrot, sliced
• 1 small sweet red pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 cubanelle or mild banana pepper, thinly sliced
• 3 sprigs fresh oregano
• hot cooked rice
• optional: additional fresh oregano, lime wedges and sliced green olives with pimientos

Directions

1. Cut steak into 6 pieces; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat; brown meat in batches. Transfer meat to a 5- or 6-qt. slow cooker. Add broth, vermouth, wine and tomato paste to pan. Cook 2-3 minutes, stirring to loosen browned bits from pan. Pour over meat.
2. Top with onion, carrot, red pepper, cubanelle pepper and oregano. Cook, covered, on low until meat is tender, 8-10 hours. Remove oregano sprigs; discard. Remove meat; shred with 2 forks. Return to slow cooker; heat through. Serve with rice and, if desired, additional oregano, lime wedges and green olives.