I joked around with my Puerto Rican brothers that I call this my “white boy” mofongo. There’s a number of reasons for this, none more profound than the fact I haven’t been to Puerto Rico nor had any mofongo in my life. Doesn’t mean I won’t try – and that’s why I hope you visit. I like to at least have a base for what I’m going to make (I’d like to try a Chicago Deep Dish pizza before trying my own, right?).
At some point in my life, I’ll get to venture to the territory, but until then – it’s white boy mofongo. I’m working on throwing local meal ideas onto a map – we’ll see if it comes to fruition. Until then, we’re going with the “Locale” tag.
The Prep Table
I love the onion in the picture, because I didn’t use it. Sub that with the entire head of garlic I used and now we’re talking. This has been a recipe I’ve been wanting to try for awhile, but there’s been teaser work trips that have postponed this recipe. As prefaced, I want to know what to replicate if possible. Having no baseline, we’re just going to run with what I think it most popular: Plantain, garlic, chicharron.
MrsForensicBBQ and I visited a specialty market and the chicharron looked awesome. In my plant-based wife’s words: “My car smells like ass”. When in reality, it smelled delicious. What I’ve learned in my research – it’s all about the mortar/pestle. Unfortunately, all I have is a small one (you’ve seen me use it a lot) – and that’s what we’re using today.
This thing is getting a workout on this bizarre weather Saturday. We gotta mash this up for the Garlic Mojo, we gotta use this to smash the plantain – it’s all about the experience right? I’m sure the finest of PR restaurants all do this by hand. Regardless, in my quest to achieve carpal tunnel status, we’re just mashing and mashing all night.
Again, I called this my “white boy mofongo” – because I don’t think I’ve ever purchased a plantain in my life. Looked forward to peeling these like a banana and I heard my PR friends laugh in the distance. I ain’t afraid of the strange – lets try, lets venture out, lets explore.
The Process
MrsForensicBBQ and I will venture to Puerto Rico at some point and we’ll have our reasons for wanting to go there. Mine? I want to explore the cuisine. I want to know what “mojo” is – I want to taste the different ways they make a topper. I want to know what they do and why they do it. What did I do?
Fresh squeezed orange, cilantro, garlic, oil. And some salt, of course until it was refined. Just keep mashing and mixing (the story of this post).
Reasonably told I’ve been using this RecTeq smoker with an inaccurate temperature reading. I let Doug use this for Thanksgiving and with his bevy of thermometers, told me I was inaccurate. HUGE implications for everything I’ve been doing for years. I was fascinated by this discovery, but not enough to change what I’m doing – yet. For my true friends that have been around for a bit, you know I’ve complained of the RecTeq probes being exactly 10 degrees off. I can deal with that – and have. But have I really been inaccurate for the entirely of this adventure? Stay tuned!
Peeling the plaintain was an unexpected hurdle. “White boy mofongo”. Peeled, sliced and lets get ’em fried up. I had no idea what to expect with this. These stayed in the oil for a good 10min, until the picture you see below. But when I felt them, I’m like.. “this ain’t right”.
That was right. In fact, it was so right. I ate one and it was a better product than I had imagined. I’ll say it again, I have zero plantain experience – and even if it’s an oil-bath experience to start- it was a positive one. I was surprised that it mashed pretty darn well. Had structure, but also had the smash. This was when I realized why the mofongo was a special dish.
The Result
Here’s where my tools failed me – but I had to adapt, and overcome. I had the garlic smashed up, the chicharron diced.. and the plantains. I portioned to make it work. What exactly “what I portioning to make work”? This is why we need to go to PR and see how they do it. I love not only the cuisine of other cultures – it’s the passion of the cuisine of the other cultures. I’m doing the best with what I got – but I want to experience what that PR chef prides themselves on.
The native PR may ridicule, those US-continental PR may laugh – but what you’re looking at is the flavor and while not exactly right, this was a delight. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this dish. It was dry, but it wasn’t an unpleasant dry which was weird. I had so much garlic infused this meal that I couldn’t bother myself with anything other than flavor.
Plantains were an understandingly forgotten item. You need to do something special (mofongo) to make it shine, otherwise it’s a meh fruit. If you’re telling me its a potentially savory banana, i’ll buy it. I’m much more savory than sweet.
I look forward to a mofongo pt.2 when I visit or my PR friends provide me a recipe and I can enhance what I have. The reheat wasn’t great at all. ChicharrĂ³ns lost their luster, the dry of the plaintain was even dry-er.. We joke in our household: It’s never as good the second day, and this was no different.
ForensicBBQ – never know what’s coming next!