I don't know Cuban food. I'm willing to wager that most recipe authors for Weight Watchers don't, either. They may have improved since 1974 (what on earth do pimientos and bean sprouts have to do with Polynesia?!?), but they still have a very odd relationship with ingredients and food that I don't have enough education to weigh in on at this time. So the quotes remain. What I do know is this: I enjoy just about any recipe that ends with the words "add a splash of lime and garnish with cilantro". I would buy cilantro air freshener if they made it. Then again, I'd be perpetually hungry if I used something that, and given the fact that I'm using Weight Watchers recipes, it's probably apparent that this is not something I need.
Most of the time, recipes are like movie trailers - I can view them and know from the ingredients involved whether I will enjoy them. It's not perfect, and sometimes I give into peer pressure and end up sitting through "Couples Retreat" wishing for a technical problem so that the bleeding from my eyes and ears will cease, but those times are rare. Plus, unlike movies, when you find a recipe unpalatable you can always makes changes for the next time around that will make it better. I can't go around saying "Ah, next time we see that movie we're going to leave out the Ben Stiller. I think that will prevent it from smelling like rotting vegetables." My entire analogy just fell apart, didn't it?
To sum up, when I saw this recipe I saw that it had cumin and cilantro. Those two ingredients are like the food equivalent of Natalie Portman and Cate Blanchett. It may not be for everyone, but I know I'll enjoy it.
The other ingredients include pork loin, sweet potatoes, green onions and diced tomatoes. Crock pot on low for several hours and then throw in the lime and cilantro at the end. I am not usually a meat eater, and this was, in large proportion, stewed meat and very little else (I think some sort of bean might be very good in there, I'm just not sure which kind yet). But there are times when the rest of the ingredients pull me in and I can't immediately think of an appropriate method of replacing the meat that would leave all the flavor intact. So I don't and I just live with the fact that I'm a reluctant omnivore. The sweet potatoes did not seem to add much of their own flavor because so much else was going on, but I think they were more appropriate than white potatoes would have been (and are better for you, so that's a bonus). With every bite I was getting something a little different. I would get a little cilantro and think of Mexican, Thai food, citrus-scented stir fry dishes. Then I would get some tomatoes and pork and the cumin would come through and it was like an international chili. In fact, that's what I'm going to call it - International Chili. Perhaps I just get stuck on the cumin and I haven't enjoyed it in enough ways to associate it with anything other than chili. But I think for most people that would probably serve as a better description than I'm going to be able to come up with. It's probably not something I'll make too often while living with my family, because my dad doesn't like sweet potatoes (even if they don't really taste like whatever sweet potato dish made him dislike them in the first place). And my sister, while very graciously adventurous and willing to try anything I make, prefers simpler cooking with pasta and potatoes. I do too, but a combination of friends and circumstances make me gravitate towards things that are different. Especially when dieting. When you have to adjust your cooking and leave out things that you would have piled on before, you have to find very strong flavor profiles that you enjoy but that aren't as bad for you. My future kitchen will probably never see real butter, but the herb and spice cabinet is going to have everything I can find in a 100 mile radius. Or whatever size radius that can include a Whole Foods.
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