The Caribbean · Volume 12, The Sofrito, the Libreta and the Ninety Miles to Miami
Rabo encendido
Cuba, island and Miami
Illustration
- Researched
- Researched from 106 sources in the brief
Rabo encendido is oxtail stewed in tomato and wine, and Cubans argue about the fire in its name. The recipe here is the island's, from Silvia Mayra Gómez Fariñas in Cubadebate in 2018: oxtail fried with chorizo in a sofrito, stewed with tomato, white or dry wine and vinegar, with olives, raisins and capers, and no chilli. A reader from Bayamo answered under it that the recipe was wrong, that rabo encendido has always been sold at the Bayamo carnival, and that it is called encendido because it is hot. Revista Más Cuba, a state tourism magazine, marinates the tail in sour orange, flames it with rum and adds hot pimentón. All three are island voices.
In Miami, Three Guys From Miami braise it in red wine with allspice and nutmeg, carrot and potato, for 1½ to 2 hours, with no chilli at all. CiberCuba, from exile, gives the pressure cooker version of Dailis Ferrer Moreira, a Guantánamo cook in Alicante, and says the dish is nearly forgotten in Cuba because oxtail cannot be bought there. Under Gómez Fariñas's column, island readers ask where to find the tail; one says a butcher in Las Tunas sells it; Cubadebate in 2025 lists rabo encendido among the dishes in demand at popular fairs.
As tradition built it
Serves 4.
Ingredients
- 1 oxtail, cut in pieces
- 10 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 onion, in rings
- 2 ajíes, Cuban sweet peppers, in strips
- 1 leaf Cuban oregano, fresh, chopped fine
- 1 tsp cumin
- as needed oil
- 2 chorizos, chopped
- ½ cup white wine or vino seco
- ¼ cup vinegar
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup tomato purée
- ½ cup olives
- ¼ cup capers
- ¼ cup raisins
- to cover water
- to taste pepper
- to taste salt
- to serve white rice and salad
Method
- Wash and clean the oxtail and cut it in pieces at the joints.
- Heat the oil in a caldero with the garlic, the ajíes, the onion, the Cuban oregano, the cumin, salt and pepper.
- When it starts to fry, add the oxtail and the chorizos and fry them together.
- Add the wine, the vinegar, the bay leaf, the tomato purée, the olives, the capers and the raisins, and water to cover. Season.
- Cook over medium heat until the oxtail is tender and the sauce has thickened to your liking.
- Serve with white rice and salad.
Notes
Gómez Fariñas gives no time. Ferrer Moreira, in CiberCuba, cooks 1kg of oxtail 35 minutes at pressure and rests it 10. Three Guys From Miami simmer 1½ to 2 hours.
What a modern chef changes
The tail marinated in sour orange, browned hard, and the fire chosen
Rung 01, 02
Method
- Marinate the tail 2 to 3 hours in sour orange, garlic, cumin and salt, as Más Cuba does. Rung 02: the acid works on the surface, and the browned crust tastes of the mojo.
- Brown the oxtail hard and alone before the sofrito, in batches, then build the sofrito in that fat in its order. Rung 01: the island recipe fries everything at once, and the onion steams.
- Braise it low and covered in the oven, not on the flame, until the meat comes off the bone with a spoon, then lift off the fat and reduce the sauce to coat.
- Decide the fire and say so. A hot ají in the sofrito makes it the Bayamo carnival's rabo; a splash of rum set alight makes it Más Cuba's. Either is encendido.