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Plantain Tostones

20 Jul

I had already given you a lesson in making tostones when I shared my Tostón Sandwich with all of you.  This time, I want to show those of you who are not familiar with tostones – the traditional way of making them… well, almost traditional because like most of you outside the Latin communities, I do not own a “tostonera” – the implement used to mash the tostones into its traditional shape.  Funny I do not own one, because my dad sells them wholesale.  As they say in Spanish, “en casa del herrero, cuchillo de palo”.

I specify these are Plantain Tostones because tostones can be made from the traditional plantains, or also out of breadfruit.  Tostones (any kind) are a great side dish to many dishes I have shared with you here…   like pastas, rices or even to use as a base for a delicious Antipasto. 

Here’s how… you need to start with Green Plantains.  Optimally, they need to be large, but very green still.   Here is a picture to give you an idea of the differences in ripeness.

 

 

 

 

 

PLANTAIN TOSTONES

1 green plantain, peeled and sliced in 1-inch rounds
Canola oil, for frying
Garlic Salt for sprinkling on top after they’re fried
  1. In a small skillet, pour about ½ inch of canola oil over medium-high heat.  Check if the oil is ready by inserting the back end of a wooden spoon.  When bubbles form around the spoon, the oil is ready to fry.
  2. This is how you peel a green plantain… chop off the ends.  Make 3-4 slits from top to bottom ends and with the help of a knife and your finger, take the peel off.  Just like with green bananas, if the plantain is too green, the peel will be difficult to take out and refrigeration will not help.
  4. When the plantain is peeled, cut it into rounds about 1 inch thick.
  6. Place about 3-4 plantain pieces in the oil and start cooking.  Do not be tempted to place all plantain pieces in even if they fit… why? Because you need to cook them partially, smash them and then refry them.  If you fry them too much the first time, they might be hard to smash.  You do not want to over-fry them that first time, so the easiest way is to work in small batches.  If you have someone helping you in the kitchen, you might be able to get adventurous enough to put in a few extra…
  8. Take 2 plates, a salad plate and a dinner plate.  Place a plantain piece on the dinner plate and with the bottom side of the salad plate SMASH the plantain piece down.  Peel the tostón piece off with a spatula (it probably stuck to either the bottom of the top plate) to prevent it from breaking apart and return it to the frying oil.  Repeat with all plantain pieces.
  9.                       
  10. At this point… you can either store them in freezer bags and freeze them until you’re ready to eat them or finish them to eat immediately by frying them for the second and last time. 
  11. Fry the tostones until they’re golden brown and crispy.
  12. Take them out of the oil onto a plate lined with a paper towel to catch the oil drippings.  Sprinkle with garlic salt as soon as they come out of the oil.

 

You can also eat them with some butter on top – that’s how my dad likes them…

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Sun-dried Tomato Jam

6 Jul

Looking to develop new offerings for my itty-bitty food business, I decided to try a sun-dried tomato something.  In the same week, I ran across 2 tomato jam recipes and I considered it a sign.  The one I followed mostly was Giada’s recipe here…. of course, tweaked to make it vegetarian.

The results… delicious, but too time consuming and expensive to produce for a growing business so I decided then to share with you the fruits of my labor.

This jam tastes awesome spread on top of a crostini, over a goat cheese toast, or as a condiment for a sandwich, like an Eggplant Parmesan Sandwich.  I am sure you and I will be able to come up with many more uses.  Check it out!

 

 

SUN-DRIED TOMATO JAM

4oz sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil and finely chopped
About 1 tbs of the sun-dried tomato oil in the jar
½ tbs olive oil
½ medium sized onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbs brown sugar
3 tbs apple cider vinegar
½ cup water
¼ cup vegetable stock
Kosher Salt and cracked Black pepper to taste

 

  1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes and their oil, onions and garlic.  Stir together and cook until the onions have softened and reached a consistency similar to the tomatoes.  This will take about 10 minutes.
  2. Add the sugar, vinegar, water, vegetable broth, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and bring to a simmer covered for about 30 minutes. 
  3. Uncover and cook some more for about 20-30 minutes, allowing for the liquid to evaporate and the mix to attain the consistency of jam.  Remove from the heat and set aside to cool off.
  4. Use right away or keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.  Believe me, it won’t last longer than that…

 

I know the color in the pictures looks not-so-appetizing, but the flavors ROCK!!!!  It’s sweet and savory all at the same time.  This has become one of my go-to condiments…

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Roasted Mushrooms

15 Jun

I made these originally as part of my Comme Çi Comme Ça Salade Niçoise… but when I make them by themselves, I like to do something nice to them that the former recipe does not includes.

Lately something has been bothering me about how I named my version of Salade Niçoise.  In my conversational French class we discussed how real French people do not say the phrase “comme çi comme ça” to refer to the English phrase “more or less”.  Apparently they use more commonly “plus ou moin”, which is literally, “more or less”.  Apparently only people who learn French use the phrase “comme çi comme ça”.  Should I change the name of the recipe?  Discuss amongst yourselves and let me know your POV.

Revenons nos muttons…

More recently, I made these mushrooms to accompany my Blue Cheese Polenta and the combination was nothing short of amazing!!! 

 

 

ROASTED MUSHROOMS with Lemon Juice

½ packet of button mushrooms, sliced in half
2 tbs Olive oil
Kosher salt to taste
Freshly Cracked Black Pepper to taste
The juice of ½ lemon

 

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350° F.
  2. Clean and wipe well the mushrooms.  Slice them in half.
  3. On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, toss the mushroom halves with olive oil, salt and pepper.   Super simple.
  4. Roast in the oven for about 20 -25 minutes.
  5. Serve them while they’re still warm and drizzle the lemon juice on top of mushrooms.

 

 The tanginess of the lemon juice pairs very well with the earthiness of the mushrooms.  I started doing this after I tasted the stuffed mushrooms at Magianno’s once.  I loved the flavor combination.  These are great for a quick supper any day of the week, but still, easy and flavorful enough for company.

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Mock Bacalaítos – BacalaFREEtos

2 Jun

Ok… you’ve made the Potato Leek Soup, you garnished it with the fried Leek Rings… but what do you do with the left over batter from the Leek Rings?  Do you throw it out?  Of course not!!!

Let me tell you the story about the Bacalaíto…  what’s a Bacalaíto?

Bacalao is the word in Spanish for Codfish – the salted dry codfish.  They one that looks like an old dried-out shoe sole.  I mean, the fresh codfish is also called bacalao, but you need to preface it by saying it’s fresh bacalao, because traditionally the codfish eaten here is the dried out kind.  Enough with the cod lesson…

Well, a very traditional Puerto Rican fritter is made with the rehydrated and de-salted cod mixed in with a flour batter.  If you go to any Puerto Rican street fair, there will be several stands selling these fritters…  one of my favorites when attending the Fiestas de San Sebastian…  So now that I am vegetarian, how do I satisfy my cravings on these delicious and greasy fritters?

Well, I learned that honestly, if you season the batter well enough, the fried flour mixture will taste exactly like a bacalaíto, but without adding any of the codfish.  Newsflash to all traditional bacalaíto makers… it’s even simpler to make because you don’t have to de-salt and rehydrate anything that once was alive…  it’s the Mock Bacalaíto.  I’ve tried to look for a better name… but locals would not know what it is if I call it something else besides bacalaítos…

UPDATE 1/25/2011 – My friend Angie has coined a NEW NAME for these fritters – BacalaFREEtos… as in Free of Bacalao, KarmaFREE Cooking, and they’re Fried (fritos in Spanish) it’s just too clever huh???  So that’s how we’re calling them from now on.  Angie – you have full name rights on this one!!!

 People can’t believe they taste so much like the real thing… the secret is in seasoning the batter well.  Here’s how…

 

MOCK BACALAITOS

½ cup whole wheat pastry flour – this will work well with spelt flour too
About equal parts of water
1 tbs sofrito
½ tbs of Kosher Salt
½ tbs of Pepper
Canola oil to fry

 

  1. I’ll be honest, I have never measured the amounts of the seasoning…  but the batter should taste well-seasoned.  You need it to taste like something, not just like wet flour.
  2. In a large skillet, heat about 1 ½ inches of canola oil.  Make sure the oil is very hot before frying the first batch.  Try inserting the back end of a wooden spoon into the oil and the oil will be ready when you see bubbles around the wood.
  3. Using a large spoon or ladle, pour some of the batter into the oil, like making silver-dollar pancakes.  Wait until the batter has set a bit on the first “bacalaito” before you pour on another ladle.  If they fuse to each other, they’ll be difficult to turn.
  5. Fry on one side until the batter turns crisp and golden brown on one side.  Flip and fry some more until evenly golden.
  6. Transfer the fritters onto a plate with paper towels to drain the excess oil.  No need to season them again.

Enjoy them as a snack with your favorite natural soda or natural juice drink.   Give these to anyone at a party and you’ll see them flying off the plate.  There are restaurants here that serve these as appetizers even.

This is definitely not food for everyday…  this is a fried snack to eat sparingly.  But believe me, I make a batch of these before going to any street festival so that the smell of the real kind will not lure me in… trying to keep those temptations at bay…

And to all those Puerto Ricans out there… there’s no need to do without these Puerto Rican delicacies when you go vegetarian… 

Buen Provecho!

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Mexican Salsa

17 May

I told you I was in an international mode these days, no?  Well, around the 5 de Mayo days, with all the TV ads about Mexican treats, I wanted some of my own.

I found a  recipe for Home-Made Mexican Salsa.  Please forgive me, but I did not save the address of where I got it from.  It seemed simple enough and I had all the ingredients at hand.  Let’s make some salsa.  I should say that I omitted the canned green chiles and the cilantro… they just do not agree with me.

 

MEXICAN SALSA

1 cup chopped tomatoes – I used Viter brand that comes in a jar, but you can use 2 fresh tomatoes too, finely chopped
½ onion, finely chopped
½ green bell pepper, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, grated
The juice of 1 ½ limes
1 tsp of kosher salt, or more to taste
1 tsp garlic salt
Freshly cracked black pepper

 

  1. In a medium sized bowl with a lid, mix together the chopped tomatoes, onions, bell pepper and garlic cloves.   Add the lime juice, salt, garlic salt and pepper.
  2. Mix well and refrigerate overnight.
  3. Serve with corn chips or tortillas.

 

I’ll be honest.  It’s good, but I still need to tweak this recipe to make it taste more like a salsa and less like a gazpacho.  And I am not fond of gazpachos because to me, they taste like a sofrito.

So you might be asking yourselves, why in the world did Madelyn is giving us this recipe if she doesn’t really like it??????  Because it served as a great starter for these Stewed Sweet Peas.   I served the sweet peas over rice mixed with some toasted almonds and as the filling for a Potato and Sweet Pea Pastelon.

This was a tasty exercise in recycling…   try it, and let me know if you have any other “recycling” stories in your cooking repertoire. 

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