Mofongo

Hello everyone! Several years ago, I went to Puerto Rico for vacation. It was absolutely fantastic. What a beautiful place, with a great variety of things to do, from beaches, to forts, to lush jungles, to a rich and lovely old city type downtown area. These are just a few photos to describe our adventure. 

and of course such fantastic food and pretty decent beer.

One of our most memorable meals was a dish called Mofongo.

It was such an incredibly delicious meal, that for years, I thought about it and tried to find restaurants that made it. When I couldn't find it anywhere I then finally decided I could give it a go myself. So this recipe is several years in the making.

I've made this a few times now. The first iteration I fried the plantains and tried to mash it like potatoes. This was very tasty, but not at all like what I remembered. The second iteration, I fried it again but used a food processor. This was way more like what I remembered, but I was still feeling guilty about the frying. So finally, I decided to steam the plantains like veggies, and voila, a healthy but still delicious version of this Puerto Rican delight. So I realize this is not authentic, but for my personal preference, I didn't like the feeling of eating the fried plantain and I'd like to have this more often, so I decided to go the non greasy route. Also I added in some mushrooms and I'm not entirely sure about the onions. So maybe not the most authentic, but it certainly does give me that happy feeling and it was really delicious. And just like always, this is seriously simple and really filling!

So here we go!
Note: These ingredients are per person so just increase as necessary for additional people.

Ingredients
1 small to medium sized green plantain

    Filling
    1 slice bacon, cut into small pieces
    2 cloves garlic, chopped very small or crushed
    1/2 white or red onion, sliced
    2 button mushrooms, sliced
    Salt & pepper
    Hot pepper (like thai pepper, or jalapeno), finely chopped
    3-4 medium shrimp/extra small piece chicken breast/small piece of steak

Step 1: Slice ends of plantain, cut in half, and slice peel down middle so it can breathe when steamed.

Note these need to be "green" (not ripe) because the sweet plantains will not taste right

Step 2: Steam the plantains for about 10 -12 minutes

Meanwhile we'll make the filling

Step 3: In a frying pan, combine bacon and onions.

Step 4: After several minutes, add mushroom

Step 5: Add garlic

Step 6: Add hot peppers

Step 7: Add Shrimp/Chicken/Beef and cook through

I used shrimp, cut into small pieces, this time, but I have used chicken as well as beef and they've all been pretty fantastic

Step 8: Place steamed plantains in food processor and pulse until plantains break apart

Add salt and pepper to taste

Step 9: Layer plantains with filling in a cute bowl

Enjoy!!