Allan Appel Photo
The recipe for chuletas guisadas, or sautéed pork chops, called for lots of Adobo, an inventive touch of cumin, not stinting on the sofrtio, and a stern warning: Pay attention — and don’t heckle.
That’s because the chefs giving the cooking demonstration at Arte included an assistant police chief, Luiz Casanova, and Fair Haven patrol cop Diego Quintero.
The “cocina cops,” as they were billed, gave a humorous and well received cooking lesson — Quintero on the Puerto Rican0style pork chops with a Colombian twist of cumin and Casanova on the fruity sweet wine sangria to go with it.
About 35 people came with appetite and culinary curiosity to the fundraiser held this past Wednesday evening for Arte, the Fair Haven-based Latino cultural and educational organization over where Grand Avenue meets the river. The organization this year is marking its first decade.
It was the fourth year the officers have cooked and shared their police perspective on the culinary arts —“Adobo [the all-purpose spice] is the secret weapon,” said Casanova — in order to lend support for Arte’s annual fall Latino heritage programming. (The third of the cooking amigos, Assistant Chief Al Vasquez, was called away on a family emergency and was unable to attend.)
Click here to see a full listing of the upcoming Latino heritage month events. And here to see musicians playing buleadors, or large barrel drums, to accompany Bomba dancing, as an example of Arte-sponsored cultural events from last year’s festivities.
Quintero, a 16-year veteran of the force, came to Connecticut from his native Colombia when he was 15 years old. For Wednesday night’s chuletas, he decided patriotically to add cumin, a spice used in Colombian cooking, he said.
As his hungry audience looked on, Quintero heated olive oil in a shiny pot, spiced up the chops with cilantro-based sofrito, Adobo, and lots of that cumin. One school of thought, he said, now adds “sazon,” another all-in-one spice; Quintero prefers to dapple it on later, when the red and green peppers, garlic, and onion have been added to the meat.
It’s when the juices of the simmering onions emerge, that the added sazon can do its magic, he said. Then comes the tomato sauce, gentle stirring. Twenty minutes later the entree is ready to be served with rice, salad, and bread.
Quintero had taken the day off to spend most of it preparing enough chuletas for his audience, which now dug in. As diners ate and offered up their praises, along with toasts to the sangria maker, Quintero said defended his cumin. He said it not only adds a “deep flavor” but for him recalls the tastes of his growing up in his native Colombia.
“There’s nothing like your grandmother or mother’s cooking,” he said.
Casanova with parks and eec Outdoor Events Coordinator Martin Torresquintero, and the sangria.
Quintero has learned Puerto Rican style cuisine through marriage; now even his mother-in-law requests his dishes
Although there are no exact numbers for where today’s Hispanic immigrants in Fair Haven hail from, the chefs and the cooking styles provide some clues. For example, the earliest Latino group in Fair Haven, Puerto Ricans, no longer have a restaurant in town where that cuisine is front and center and cooked by Puerto Ricans themselves, Quintero averred.
“El Coqui [the Spanish restaurant on Grand Avenue] is owned and run by Chinese, with a few Puerto Rican [grandmother-aged cooks] in the background,” he said.
The deli counter at C‑Town is another well-patronized local lunch spot. He said popular dishes there include chuletas, costillas (ribs), pollo guisado (sauteed chicken), and bacalado (cod). True enough, those are all Puerto Rican dishes, but they are prepared by Dominican and Mexican cooks, he said.
“The [non-Puerto Rican] cooks cater to the Puerto Rican community. Puerto Rican cuisine [prepared by Puerto Ricans in a restaurant setting] is fading away.”
In recent years also there are newer Ecuadorean and Peruvian restaurants along Grand Avenue as well.
Quintero learned to cook with his two brothers while his mom, a nurse and a single parent was away on long work shifts His tastes are eclectic and include Puerto Rican, Colombian, and increasingly lots of Italian dishes.
Thursday night at Arte, the accolades were all for the chuletas, which Zulia Sanchez (pictured), retired after 28 years teaching special ed in New Haven, pronounced “delicious.”
Plates filled twice, as did cups of the sangria. Asked what special ingredient he gave to the sangria, the assistant chief replied, “It’s got the Casanova twist. I made it.”