Venezuela

For the larded meat: With the help of a sharp knife, so as to eliminate any excess fat in the meat and to place it in a container where it fits loosely. Add the julienned paprika, onion and peppers, together with the grated tomatoes and the crushed garlic. Season with the rest of the ingredients, less the hot spices, and let the meat settle together with the marinade for an hour, kneading with the hands every fifteen minutes. Take the meat out of the marinade, dry it with a clean piece of cloth and set it aside. Put the oil over a high heat in a pressure cooker; when it is hot, add the butter, add the meat and to stir it with a wooden paddle, for it to brown on all sides. Add the marinade, and when it is boiling, add the water. When it boils, cover the cooker again, put it over an average heat and cook for 50 minutes. Get the cooker out of the heat, allow it to cool down for 15 minutes, take out the meat and, with the help of your fingers, take out shreds as thick as a matchstick until finishing up with the whole meat. In a boiler, put the oil and butter over the heat and fry the meat in several batches with the help of two forks. Strain the cooking juice by pressing the solids against the strainer’s walls, boil it down and add enough to the meat to moisten it without leaving it too soupy. Adjust the salt and add the hot spices. Set aside. For the beans: The night before, put the beans to soak in water; put them to boil in a pressure cooker in their same water, the onions cut in four, the garlic and the cumin. Cook them over a medium heat for about an hour or until they get soft. In a frying pan, prepare a sauce with the oil, onion, peppers, paprika and the garlic finely chopped. Cook ten minutes and strain, pressing the solids against the strainer’s walls and add it to the beans. Add the salt and cook them until they thicken. Set aside. For the rice: Put the water to boil with the onions cut in two, the crushed garlic, the oil and the salt. Add the rice, stir with a wooden paddle, boil over a medium heat and when little holes come out in the rice, lower the heat to a minimum and cover. Cook for 20 minutes without letting it stick. Mix the butter with the rice, cover and keep hot. The End: Put the oil over heat in a pan and fry the plantains, previously cut in three-millimeter slices, until golden brown. At the same time, heat all the ingredients separately as follows: The meat with the sauce; the beans with the butter and sugar; the rice with the butter. Cut the cheese half the size of plantain slices (about three per dish). Presentation: Place an oiled metal or plastic hoop, of those used in pastry (10 centimeters in diameter by 3.6 centimeters in height), at the center of the dish. Put in as many spoonfuls of rice as necessary to cover about 1/3 of the hoop’s height. Do the same with the beans and then with the meat. Cover with the plantain slices making a circle as they overlap with one another. Place three flowers (plantain slices cut in two with an inserted slice of cheese) at three points around the hoop, so that when seen from above, it draws a triangle. Take out the hoop carefully, garnish it with a cilantro leaf and serve.