Eli Gorelick of West Orange, New Jersey, writes: "As a kid growing up in Cuba, I worked alongside my mother every day in the kitchen, learning how to make specialties like picadillo and fried bananas....
Cooking cruciferous vegetables without boiling them, as in this recipe, seems to make them more fragrant and heady-just the way the robust Romans like their food.
Of course, I don't believe this dish is Spanish at all, but rather Cajun from Louisiana. I made it quite often in the 1960s. Then - as now - in home cooking, one had to watch the cost, and rice was an...