Mashed Plantains with Shrimp in a Red Sauce!

Well most people don't even know what plantains are so I will begin by telling you that they are fruit and belong to the banana family! They cannot be just pealed and then eaten, they need to be cooked! Plantains begin with a very dark green color, then turn yellow and finally black. As the plantains turn they become sweeter. Many dishes can be produced from this simple and versatile fruit.

Today I will be posting how to cook plantains and mash them to create a wonderful side dish with shrimp.






6 plantains they should be as dark green as possible.
4 -6 cloves of garlic minced
1 pkg.bacon bits (or you can cook and chop a 1lb. pkg. of bacon)
salt
pepper
olive oil
chicken broth

Peel plantains and cut into small wedges. Rinse off with cold water. Place them all in stock pot with water to boil, add salt to taste. Plantains are done cooking when a fork can put through them and they are tender. Mash plantains with pistol (mortar and pistol) or potato masher. Do not mix with a mixer of any kind. Add garlic, salt, pepper, bacon and olive oil (enough to make moist you may add chicken broth instead of the olive oil). This is ready to eat as a side dish to anything you like, chicken, pork, beef.

Shrimp in red sauce.
1 bag peel and eat shrimp (rinse and remove tails)
2 16 oz can tomato sauce and one small can Goya brand tomato sauce
2 packets of sazon (Goya)
Olive oil
Garlic
1 large onion peeled and sliced
6-8 garlic cloves (minced)
salt and pepper and garlic powder to taste
a pinch of oregano
paprika
red, yellow, orange peppers or pimento from the jar

Put olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan to heat up, once heated add in onion. Once the onions are done browning add the garlic continue to sauté, add salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika, once these seasonings have fused together with the garlic you may add the peppers or pimento's.

Then add all the tomato sauces and then two sazon packets.

Let these flavors blend at least 30 minutes then add shrimp. Shrimp should make a letter "C" when done cooking.

I hope you enjoy this dish and much as my family does!

Viva Sofrito!!!

Sofrito is the basic foundation of most Latin Caribbean dishes and more! I use this for all my soups, stews, meats and fillings for various dishes!

Sofrito is a versatile, aromatic puree of peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and cilantro.

2- 3 medium green peppers seeded

1 -2 red sweet peppers, seeds removed

3 medium onions, peeled and diced

1 large head of garlic peeled

1 bunch cilantro leaves

1/2 bunch of parsley leaves

Olive oil

Optional ingredients if they are available in your area:

50 culantro leaves

1 lb. of ajies dulce peppers (also named sweet habanero or capsicum chinense, it is a small light green pepper that turns red.)

Culantro leaves

ajies dulce

Yields: about 1 to 1 1/2 quarts

Once the ingredients are chopped begin to add them into the food processor or blender. I like to add the ingredients in small batches to make the consistency a little better. I also like to add a little bit of olive oil to the mixture. This adds a smoothness a little bit of flavor.

When the mixture is complete you can take ice cube trays and put the sofrito into each section then freeze. Once frozen the cubes can be removed and placed into freezer bags for easier storage and usage. When using for a recipe you just grab one or two cubes.

Once you have this made you can move onto the next step!

Getting Started!

My background is Puerto Rican and Irish. This makes for an unusual combination if I do say so myself. Most of my cooking background is very much influenced by the Puerto Rican style of cooking with herbs and spices. Although over the past few years I have ventured to make so many different types of foods.

I decided that since I love to cook I would create a blog to share my recipes that my family has enjoyed over the years. I believe that cooking can be very therapeutic. It has been that way for me over the years. I love to take recipes and tweaking them to create them my own. I do this by adding ingredients or removing them totally from the recipe.

This blog is a way for me to share my love for cooking by helping you to enjoy it also. I love to cook but I also love to keep the dish flavorful and simple!

Tomorrow we begin our journey we need to start with the sofrito!