Slow Down and Savor - a food blog
When my husband and I went to Puerto Rico on our honey moon, we both fell in love with the dish that every local seemed to love, Mofongo.
Basically, mofongo is a Puerto Rican dish typically made with green plantains mashed together in a pilón (which is a wooden mortar and pestle), with broth, garlic, olive oil, and pork cracklings or bits of bacon. It is often filled with vegetables, chicken, crab, shrimp, or beef and is often served with fried meat and chicken broth soup.
So last week, when I was growing super weary of making the same old things all the time, I decided to make, you guessed it, mofongo. It couldn’t be that hard, right? So I gathered all the ingredients at HEB, and was super pumped to put together this delicious island meal for my husband and me for a special stay-at-home date night.
I decided to make a fiery “island” sauce to cook some shrimp in, and then I’d pile it on top of our mofongo. De-lish.
Guess what? It was a success!! A HUGE success So much of a success in fact, that I decided to make it again last night. This time, I had the kiddo’s palate to think about, but I sort of just wanted to see what he would think of it before making any adjustments. And he loved it too. No adjustments needed! Wahoo!
He loved it so much, in fact, that he decided to sing a song about it. And you’ll be singing too, once you make this Puerto Rican classic in your very own home.
- a tbsp or so of olive oil
- 3 green plantains, peeled and chopped in 1/2" slices
- Vegetable or chicken stock. (1 cup or so)
- 1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
- 4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 2 tbsp of bacon fat, or 3 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled
- More olive oil
- 3/4 lb. large or jumbo cleaned, de-veined, de-tailed shrimp
- 1 large can of crushed tomatoes
- 5 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
- 1 large bunch of washed cilantro
- salt & pepper
- crushed red pepper (as much or as little as you want)
- In a skillet, warm up some olive oil (OR BACON FAT), and toss in the garlic & onions. Cook until translucent.
- Add in the cooked/crushed bacon now.
- Cook on low to deepen the flavors.
- Remove the veggies from the pan, and add in some more oil or bacon fat.
- Turn heat up to med-high, and add in the plantain pieces, and let them get browned on one side, then the other, before turning the heat down. Check at around 5 minutes, and add a little of the stock. Stir. Cover. Keep doing this. It's kind of like risotto here. Salt & pepper to taste.
- Once the plantains are nice and super tender, like SUPER tender, pour them into the bowl where you have the veggies/bacon, and using a potato masher, mash the plantains into a consistency like mashed potatoes.
- To serve, scoop some of the mofongo out onto a plate and form into a round shape. You can also use a small bowl to get the mold right.
- Put some olive oil into a sauce/stock pot and get it warm. Add your onions, garlic and salt. Cook until translucent.
- Add the can of tomatoes. Stir.
- Stir in 1/2 of the bunch of cilantro and turn the sauce down to med-low, stirring occasionally.
- In about 10 minutes, add the crushed red pepper, and some more salt/pepper.
- TASTE ALONG THE WAY. The sauce should be sweet and acidic, with a slight heat.
- After about 40 or so minutes, add in the rest of the cilantro. Keep stirring.
- When you're about ready to serve, add in the shrimp, and set your timer for 7 minutes. Stir the shrimp into the sauce. Once the timer goes off, your shrimp should be cooked through. They'll look opaque.
- If your sauce is too thick, just add some of the veggie/chicken stock to thin it out.
- To serve, spoon out the amount of shrimp desired and place on top of your mofongo, and then top with the sauce.
- Fin!
