Mofungo… please!

Mofungo Rellenos Mixto, a delicious Puerto Rican dish (here stuffed with mixed seafood), from Seasons Restaurant in Rincon, PR.  Photo:  Bruce Winland.

It’s that time of year again.  Christmas trees on every street corner, holiday decorations and tourists everywhere you look.  Visions of dancing sugar plums and all that glitters. You’d think I’d be chomping at the bit to develop a dozen holiday menus.  But, no.  I am daydreaming instead of my 10 day journey to Rincon, Puerto Rico and wishing I was back there.  Warm sun on my face, beautiful dive sites, lazy days and, oh, the food!

I wasn’t planning on a foodie vacation but there was mad food everywhere!  And I got quite the education.  I’ve always lumped Puerto Rican cuisine in with Caribbean and Cuban cuisine.  While they certainly have their similarities, Puerto Rican food is a really unique blend of Spanish, African, Taino and American (yes, American) influences using a host of versatile indigenous ingredients like plantains, chayote, annatto, coriander, papaya and cacao.  The locals call the cuisine Cocina Criolla (creole cooking) and it can be traced back to the original inhabitants of the island — the Taino and Arawak Indians.  When Columbus showed up with Ponce de Leon in 1493 (landing in Rincon, it is widely argued), they introduced pork, beef, rice, wheat and olive oil.  The Spanish began planting sugarcane and imported African slaves to work the fields.  The Africans, in turn, brought okra and taro, a root the Puerto Ricans call yautia.

Green bananas and other local delights at a roadside stall.

You don’t need to step foot into a Puerto Rican restaurant to learn about cocina criolla.  All you have to do is look around… and breathe deep.  Along every roadside, there are tiny vegetable stands and makeshift food stalls — all with signs touting their fare:  lechon (a most delicious roasted pork), pinchos (shish-kebab), empanadillas (if I’m lucky enough to choose my last meal, the trunk fish empanadillas from Sonia Rican at Playa Jobos in Isabela will certainly make the cut),  plantains, tostones, coco frio (cold coconut water), mavi (a beer doppelganger that is actually a fermented drink made from mavi bark).  The list goes on but I was stumped by the myriad of signs pushing Mofungo.  I didn’t much care what it was, it just sounded too cool NOT to eat it.  And, since you really can’t walk in to a restaurant in Puerto Rico that didn’t have Mofungo on the menu, eat it we did!

My first Mofungo experience was at Sunsets, a lovely seaside restaurant in Rincon, a surfing town on the Northwest coast.  Mofungo, I was told, is the unofficial king of Puerto Rican cuisine.  Essentially, it is a filling combination of mashed plantains, garlic, olive oil and pork cracklings that can be served as a side or and an entree with an unlimited choice of fillings like seafood, pork, chicken, beef and vegetables.  The latter version is called Mofungo Rellenos (stuffed) and it is most traditionally prepared and served in a wooden bowl that is basically a mortar (yes, of course I brought one back!).  It seems every roadside shack and restaurant has their own recipe.  And families pass down their recipe for the dish so next generations can serve this delicious meal at home.

On our second day scuba diving with Taino Divers, I mentioned to our dive master, Frank, that I wrote a food blog.  Having just speared an invasive lion fish for his lunch (fascinating story that I will be posting after the holidays), he was excited to talk with me about the local cuisine.  Frank’s dad had a popular catering business and he and his siblings helped out in the kitchen.  I had no doubt that Frank was an accomplished chef so I wanted to hear his thoughts on making the perfect mofungo.  Unfortunately, I’m much better under the water than on top of it and my attention waned from his explanation to the rocking boat and a mounting need to offer up the contents of my stomach into the sea.

From my memory of Frank’s instructions and and a bit of research, here is a version of Mofundo Rellenos that, come the cold depths of winter, will replace your craving for boring pot pie.  I plan to try and create a tapas version to serve at parties and will keep you posted.  Frank, if you’re out there, thanks for the tips and feel free to correct my interpretation!  For the rest of you, I promise to put on the holiday glam next week.  In Puerto Rico, they’ve had their Christmas trees up since the beginning of November; I think it’s time for me to rally!

Recipe:  Mofungo Rellenos

Serves 4

Ingredients

3 - 4 green plantains, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces

2 strips of bacon

1 garlic clove, ground

1/2 tsp. salt

4 cups plus 1/2 cup chicken broth

Olive oil

2 lbs. assorted fish like shrimp, monk fish, lobster, scallops, grouper, calamari

1 15 oz. can tomato sauce

1/2 sweet or yellow onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 poblano or green bell pepper, finely chopped

1/2 chayote, finely chopped (optional)

4 tbl cilantro, minced

1 Tbl. adobo (1 tsp. each:  cumin, salt, onion powder, garlic powder)

1/2 tsp. achiote paste (can be found in Mexican markets or online from Amazon)

4 Tbl. sherry wine vinegar

1 cup chicken stock

Prepare the Mofungo

Boil 2 cups chicken stock and pre-cook plantains for 5 minutes.  In the meantime, fry 2 strips of bacon in a large skillet until the fat melts away.  Reserve the fat in the skillet and drain the bacon on a paper towel.  Remove the plantains, reserving stock, and add the plantains to the skillet over medium-high heat.  Cook until golden brown.  Flip over and add garlic and salt.  Cook until the plantains are golden brown and soft, deglazing the skillet with reserved stock if necessary.

Remove the plantain mixture and mash in a large mortar with a pestle (or a bowl with a potato masher).  Roughly chop the bacon and add to the plantains.  Pour in 1/4 c. of chicken stock, keeping the mixture smooth but thick.

Prepare the Filling

Heat 1 Tbl. olive oil in a large, heavy saucepan over medium-high heat and cook onion, garlic, pepper, chayote and cilantro until cooked through about 7 minutes.  Add adobo and achiote paste, stir until blended.  Pour in tomato sauce, sherry vinegar and 2 cups of stock and cook 3 minutes.  Lower to simmer.  Add fish and cook until fish is cooked through, about 4 - 5 minutes (depending on your fish selection).

Assemble

Press the plantains around the shape of a bowl (use a tall wooden mortar for a traditional presentation).  If you don’t have a proper serving bowl, you can form the plantains over the back of a muffin tin, glass bottom of a bowl to make a mold.  Divide the stew mixture among the four “bowls” and spoon sauce over.  Serve extra sauce on the side.  Garnish with cilantro and/or slice an unpeeled plantain thinly lengthwise and fry in olive oil, turning, until golden brown and slightly crisp.

Have fun with the filling — us the tomato sauce as a base but add chicken, pork, vegetables or tofu as you like!

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