Had a birthday party this past weekend to celbrate Father in Law's 70th birthday party, and in line with his heritage, we celebrated with Puerto Rican food. But, I did put my own twist on the standard dishes to personalize the meal for our party of 12.
Baby, she was really impressive. In her well-learned party hostess mode, she even stayed up with us until 1am, though she did immediately crash out on my shoulder (she never does that anymore, so I'm happily obliging holding her in my arms while she's asleep!). Next morning, contrary to what I've heard about kids, she slept in until 10am, affording Hubby and me a good chance to get some good sleep as well after our cooking and party efforts.
So here we go on the recipes. The first is a follow-up request from our Chinese dinner in the autumn.
Simmered pork
Bone-in pork (if I recall correctly, I used pork tenderloin cut into small pieces, and also threw in some pork leg for the skin)
Soy sauce
Sugar
Ginger (2 pieces)
2 star anise
Water
- Marinate pork pieces in a mixture of soy and sugar, approximately a 1:2 ratio of soy to sugar for approximately 1 hour. Make enough of the marinade to just coat the pork pieces.
- Cut 2 pieces of ginger, about 1"x2" pieces.
- In a large pot, place marinated pork in enough of the soy/sugar mixture (same ratio as above) to cover pork to about 1/2 of depth of pork. Fill the pot with enough water to cover the pork by approximately 1", add ginger and star anise, and simmer for 3 hours on low heat. The liquid should be reduced by about half.
- I finished the dish with a pinch of salt and white pepper when I turned off the heat, and let the pork rest in the stewing liquid for about 15 minutes.
- Serve just by itself or over rice. The pork leg, I just cut the skin off the leg and served a small sliver with each serving of pork.
Tostones with vanilla foam and caviar
Plantains, cut into 1" thick pieces and soaked in saltwater for a minimum of 2 hours
Kosher salt
Oil for deep frying
Heavy whipping cream
1 vanilla bean
- Cut and soak plantains in salt water.
- In the mean time, cut open vanilla bean and scrape out seeds into whipping cream. Whip cream until stiff peaks form.
- Heat oil in deep pan. Toss in 1 layer of plantains for a first fry until they're yellow (about 3 minutes per side).
- Press plantains after frying soaking to 1/4" thickness. Deep fry again until crispy.
- Sprinkle on kosher salt.
(this recipe and the way we made the tostones seems true to tradition, but yields really oily tostones. I may try it on my own without the double frying method some time and see how the results come out)
Serve tostones with vanilla infused whipped cream and caviar.
Red Snapper Ceviche
Red bell pepper
Yellow bell pepper
Green bell pepper
Orange bell pepper
Daikon radish
Red onion
Red snapper (about 2 lb)
Lime juice
Salt/pepper
Just-ripe mango (should still be quite firm)
- Dice bell peppers, daikon radish, and red onion (1/4" dice).
- Marinate red snapper in lime juice for 1/2 hour, until opaque.
- Drain lime juice from red snapper, and mix red snapper with vegetable mixture and another (approximately) 2 tablespoons of lime juice.
- Sprinkle on some salt and pepper, and mix well. Serve with a side of diced mangos.
Plantain cups with bean mixture
- Plantains, pressed into a cup shape and deep fried.
- Fill with salad of lentils and bell peppers, tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
(I'll have to find the actual recipe for this dish)
Spanish rice
Sofrito (green bell pepper, yellow onion, cilantro, garlic (2:2:1:1 ratio), shedded and cooked with olive oil, diced salted pork, and oregano for 2 hours, then chilled (for immediate use) and/or frozen (to store))
Chorizo, cut into small dice
Rice mixture of choice (I used long grain white rice, wheatberry, quinoa, and barley)
Tumeric
Nutmeg
Pinch of saffron threads
- Start rice in rice cooker by simmering sofrito and chorizo.
- Toss in rice and stir to coat well.
- Sprinkle in tumeric and nutmeg (not much, just a couple of sprinkles).
- Stir in saffron threads.
- Cook rice until done.
Black Beans
Dry black beans
Water
Garlic, crushed
Salt pork, diced
Salt/pepper
- Soak dry black beans overnight in crushed garlic and enough water to cover beans by 1/2"
- Saute salt pork in a saute pan until oil is pulled out of pork.
- Stir in black beans and soaking water, and add enough water to cover beans by 1".
- Simmer on low until beans are cooked through but still holding their shape. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Pork roulade with sofrito
Pork tenderloin
Sofrito
Asparagus
Carrot peels
Cilantro leaves
Salt
Pepper
Bacon
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Pound tenderloin to 1/4" thickness.
- Layer on a thin coating of sofrito.
- Lay asparagus at the starting end of the tenderloin, parallel to the rolling direction for the roulade.
- Lay carrot peels parallel to the rolling direction of the tenderloin over the remaining width of the tenderloin.
- Spread cilantro leaves over the full width of the tenderloin.
- Roll tenderloin tightly, starting at the end with the asparagus. Continue rolling until the seam is fully under the roulade.
- Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and wrap roulade with bacon.
- Lay roulade on foil on baking sheet, and partially wrap roulade in a foil cup, leaving top open. Cover the top loosely with foil (tuck top foil into bottom foil "cup") and bake covered with foil for 1/2 hour. Remove top foil and fold up sides of cup to surround roulade tightly. Bake roulade for an additional 1/2 hour.
- Slice into 1/2" thick pieces and and serve.
Pina Colada ice cream (Tres Leches)
Vanilla ice cream
Marachino cherries, drained
Crushed pineapple, drained
Coconut milk
Shredded coconut
- Let vanilla ice cream thaw until consistency of custard.
- Divide vanilla ice cream into three portions.
- Use immersion blender for each of the three flavors. Blend marachino cherries into one portion, crushed pineapple into another, and coconut milk and shredded coconut into the third.
- Set in freezable containers and freeze for 2 hours.
- Take out all three flavors, and mix each well. Refreeze for an additional 3 hours.
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