COOKBOOK / ‘The Cuban Kitchen’ In more than 500 recipes, Raquel Rabade Roque presents ‘the basics plus the bells and whistles’ of ‘Cocina Cubana’

Raquel Rabade Roque

The Cuban Kitchen (Knopf, $20) is a cookbook that, despite its formidable size (432 pages, more than 500 recipes), is accessible and homey, written in a breezy, familial style.

As (author) Roque puts it: “You’re not afraid to get a stain on it.”

Part food memoir, part manual (there’s an explanation of how to clean pig’s feet), it blends the culinary traditions of 1950s Cuba with updated versions of favorite recipes from restaurants and from exiles who have settled abroad.

>>> for more info and some free recipes via the Miami Herald