Easy Authentic Homemade Sofrito

So much better than the store bought ones, this recipe will add that extra something something to all your dinners.

Blend 3 green bell peppers, 1 red bell peppers, 2 onions, 1 whole head of garlic cloves, and a bunch of cilantro or culantro... 

....and that's it!


Blend it all until it's like chunky salsa, not completely liquified.
You can freeze extras of this for a longgg time, and use it in almost everything.
Freezing in a convenient ice cube tray is the true puerto rican way, for 1 tbsp of sofrito use 1 ice cube.

Rice Cooker Spanish Yellow Rice

A great side for almost any protein imaginable. The rice cooker makes the rice come out perfect every single time.

Ingredients 

1 rice cooker cup of rice
fresh water
1 tbsp olive oil
half an onion diced very fine
half a pepper diced very fine
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 packet Sazon Goya

Saute onion and peppers in olive oil for 4 minutes or until softened.
Add in tomato paste and cook 2 minutes more to remove "raw taste".
Dump washed rice into rice cooker.
Add sauteed vegetables, stir until rice is coated.
Add enough water to reach 'line 1'.
Place chicken bouillon cube and Sazon in rice.
Cover rice, set rice cooker to "cook", and cook until done.
Fluff , put top back on rice and let sit for 4 minutes. Serve.
Serves 2.

Alternative Method ****

Try substituting the onion, peppers, and garlic for 3 tbsp of store bought or homemade sofrito .

Sweet Plantain

You may have seen this dish called "platanos" or "platanos maduros". Platanos means plantain, but maduros means mature. This is because the plantain are very ripe, maybe even over ripe when you make this dish. Don't be fooled for recipes that call for sugar, yellow plantains, cooked correctly are sweet enough to serve for dessert. 

Ingredients

2 yellow plantain

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp oil

Cut plaintains in half lengthwise.

Cut plantain pieces into smaller pieces.

If I'm cooking other components of the dinner I put the plantains in a bowl and cover with a damp paper towel to keep it from going brown. 

When you're ready to fry heat oil and butter in a frying pan until the butter is bubbling. Add in plantain.

Cook each side for about 4 minutes on medium heat, turning each piece around every so often to make sure it's not burning. The sugar in the plantain can be so sweet, or burn so bad.

When the plantain is browned on both sides remove from pan carefully as they will be so tender and fragile. It's best to use a spatula to remove from oil.

Serve warm. Feeds 4

Eazy Peazy Potato Salad

An inexpensive and delicious meal isn't too hard to find, because I will be showing you some in the coming posts, but a dish THIS delicious and THIS inexpensive deserves some recognition. Potato Salad is the vice president of the American BBQ, a laughably easy way to get children to consume vegetables, and also a dish they make in Germany hot, or so I heard. I don't like to think of that last one, so I'll go back to the first point.

Make this dish for a BBQ, party, potluck, Christmas, or make a regular weeknight a whole lot more tasty. This particular recipe is really called Ensalada Rusa, so a Russian potato salad recipe that was given to me from a Dominican lady that made it every single night for her family. I kid you not, and it's by far the best potato salad I have ever had.

Stew is Short for Guisado

The easiest way to use up vegetables and possibly tough inexpensive cuts of meat is with a stew. Here is my staple all purpose Latin American Stew, or Guisado. You can use any kind of meat you want, and really any vegetables, I listed some vegetables I use as a starting point. Feel free to add peas, corn, squash, etc.