Frita Cubana

The Three Guys From Miami’s frita cubana puts a thin beef-and-pork patty into an American-style bun, piles shoestring potatoes over the meat and adds its own tomato-paste sauce. Their selected preparation also serves additional fries on the plate.

A food processor with a chopping blade grinds the supplied ground beef and pork with supplied mashed, minced garlic and grated onion. Ketchup, ground cumin and sweet Spanish paprika are blended in. The mixture is formed by hand into thin round patties and cooks on the selected flat griddle.

For the mandatory sauce, tomato paste, water, its separate ground cumin and sweet Spanish paprika, garlic powder, sugar, white vinegar and salt are mixed in a two-quart saucepan. It comes to the boil with constant stirring, then simmers over low heat for ten to fifteen minutes with occasional stirring before cooling off the heat.

A separate frying pan holds a couple of inches of vegetable oil for the shoestring potatoes. The fried potatoes drain on paper towels, receive a light sprinkling of salt and are held warm. Near the end of the patty cooking, the griddle heat is reduced to medium-low, sauce is squirted over the patties and they cook for another minute.

The cooked patties are seasoned with salt and pepper to taste. The bun and patty receive the same sauce; optional supplied raw-onion slices and a pile of the hot fries go over the meat. More sauce finishes the fries inside the bun, and additional fries from the preparation accompany the burger on its plate.