Ingredients:

1 tablespoon yeast (one package)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
4 and 3/4 cup flour
3 lightly beaten eggs
melted butter
ham, diced, cut into long, thin strips, or deviled (if you're lazy)

Preparation:

Put the yeast, a small amount of water and 1/2 cup warm water into a small container. Let rise for 10 minutes or so.

In a large glass bowl, combine the sugar, salt, oil and milk. Add the flour and knead until everything is mixed. Then add the eggs and keep kneading. Finally, add the yeast mixture and stir until the mixture has a consistent texture (that sounds backwards to me, but I didn't write the recipe--I'm just translating).

Cover the mixture with plastic wrap (or stick in a plastic bag) and let it rise in a warm place for two hours.

Knead the dough again, and then divide it into four equal parts. Work with one part at a time.

Roll each part of the dough into a 25 centimeter (10 inch) circle using a rolling pin--not yesterday's wine bottle, Coke bottle or whatever :) Cut the flattened dough into 8 triangles, as if you were cutting a cake. Place ham in the widest part of each triangle. Then roll up each triangle, beginning at the widest part (where the ham is) and rolling towards the point of the triangle (which used to be the middle of the circle). Place the wrapped-up ham on a cookie sheet or pan, with the point folded underneath so it doesn't come unrolled.

Cover the rolls with plastic and let rise for one hour in a warm place. Pre-heat oven to 350-375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Brush melted butter on each roll and cook them in the heated oven for 15 minutes or until they are light golden. Remove them from the oven and brush with either a mixture of water and sugar or with an egg white. Return them to the oven until they are golden brown.

Yields 32 rolls, of a decent size.

P.S. If your dough does not raise it's because your yeast is old. Don't assume the yeast you bought at Christmas to make "panes de jamon" (another recipe for ham bread) will still work. Buy new yeast.

P.P.S. Eat the rolls while hot.

P.P.P.S. If you don't want quite so many rolls, you can freeze the dough and make them another day. Or if you like, you can make the rolls without the ham and leave them in the freezer for up to two months. You can cook those after thawing them for only a few minutes. But I always just make 32 rolls and four of us eat them all within two days.

METHOD

1. Heat the oil in in a skillet over medium-high flame. Sear the meat on both sides to brown well, about 4-5 minutes per side. Remove from heat and place meat in a large pot with the onion, salt and pepper and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 1 to 1 1/2 hours until meat is very tender. Remove meat and set aside to cool, reserving broth. When cool, shred the meat with your hands.
2. Reheat the skillet, adding more oil if necessary. Sauté the onion, peppers and garlic until onions are translucent. Stir in the meat and chopped tomatoes. Add a little of the reserved broth to moisten if necessary. Season with salt and pepper and simmer 15-20 minutes.
3. Serve with black beans, white rice and surrounded on two sides with the fried plantains.

VARIATIONS

• A little cumin seed can be added to the sautéing onions and peppers if you like