← Dinner PlanAugust 17, 2026

The Greater Antilles

Puerto Rico

One green pot of sofrito, and everything after it

Puerto Rican food is seasoned rather than hot, and that is the point. The depth comes from sofrito, adobo, and sazon layered into every pot, and the heat lives in a bottle of pique on the table where each of us sets it. Nothing this week ferments or needs to be started days ahead. One seven-pound pork shoulder anchors the whole thing: pernil Monday and Tuesday, and a pound pulled off before it ever reaches the table to become Wednesday's pastelon.

Week of August 17, 20263 cook days6 nights

The Menu

Three cook days
MondayMon · TuePernil with Arroz con Gandulespork shoulder, garlic, oregano, pigeon peas, stewed eggplantA garlic and oregano paste driven deep into a pork shoulder and cooked until the meat gives up. The rice is cooked in the pernil's own skimmed fat, which is not optional so much as the entire point, and the stewed eggplant alongside keeps the plate from being all pork and starch.860 kcal47g protein84g carbs36g fatserves 6→WednesdayWed · ThuPastelon de Amarillossweet plantain, pernil picadillo, egg, stewed beans with potatoLayers of caramelized ripe plantain over a savory picadillo, bound with egg and a little cheese, baked until it sets. Plantain lasagna undersells it: the interplay between sweet fruit and an olive-and-caper filling is the whole reason the dish exists. Built from Monday's pernil it takes half the time and costs almost nothing.890 kcal47g protein85g carbs40g fatserves 4→FridayFri · SatBistec Encebollado with Tostonesthin beef, a mountain of onions, vinegar, oregano, smashed green plantainThe Friday night dish. Thin beef marinated in vinegar and garlic, seared hard, then buried under more onions than seems reasonable and left to slump into a loose, sharp, oniony sauce. Tostones on the side, smashed and double-fried, with mojo for dipping.750 kcal42g protein69g carbs34g fatserves 4→

Off the Stove

No cook

Tuesday is the no-cook night

Tuesday is a hard no-cook night, and it eats Monday's pernil. Pernil is arguably better on night two than night one, because the meat keeps relaxing into its own juices and the seasoning distributes. The container was filled Monday before dinner was even plated: rice on one side, pernil on the other under two spoonfuls of its cooking liquid, eggplant filling the gap. Three minutes covered in the microwave, stir, one minute more. The cuerito waits in a bag on the counter and gets dropped on top after, because the fridge would turn it to leather.

The larder

What should already be here

  • SofritoOne blender full Monday, about 4 cups. Two onions, two heads of garlic, four cubanelles, a red bell pepper, two big bunches of cilantro with the stems, a handful of celery leaves standing in for culantro, and 1/4 cup olive oil. Keep 1.5 cups in the fridge and freeze the rest in an ice cube tray. It is the base of every single dish this week.
  • Sazon2 tbsp ground annatto, 1 tbsp each ground coriander, cumin, garlic powder, and onion powder, 2 tsp oregano, 1 tbsp kosher salt. What is in the little orange packets, minus the anticaking agent. Paprika with a little turmeric covers the color if annatto is not on the shelf.
  • Adobo2 tbsp garlic powder, 1 tbsp onion powder, 1 tbsp oregano crushed between your palms, 2 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp turmeric, 2 tbsp kosher salt.
  • Pique criolloThree sliced habaneros, four smashed garlic cloves, 1/2 cup pineapple, oregano, peppercorns and salt in a cup of white vinegar. This is where the heat lives, because none of the three dishes is spicy on its own. Usable Monday night, good by Wednesday, excellent by Friday, and it keeps for months getting better.
  • Mojo de ajoEight sliced garlic cloves warmed gently in 1/3 cup olive oil for 5 minutes, pale gold and never brown, then the juice of 2 limes, oregano and salt off the heat. For Friday's tostones and good on everything else.
  • Pernil drippingsSkimmed off Monday's cooking liquid and used as the fat for the arroz con gandules. This is the difference between good rice and the rice people remember.
  • One pound of reserved pernilPulled off Monday before anyone sits down. It becomes Wednesday's picadillo, which is why the pastelon takes 45 minutes instead of two hours.

Shopping List

36 items

Meat and staplesCostco

  • Bone-in pork shoulder, skin on if you can get it7 lb
  • Cube steak or thin-cut top round1.5 lb
  • Medium-grain rice5 lb
  • Yellow onions5 lb bag
  • Peeled garlic1 tub, two heads worth to the sofrito alone
  • Olive oil1 bottle
  • Eggs1 dozen

Produce

  • Yukon Gold potatoes12 oz, use what you have
  • Yellow plantains, buy early so they blacken by Wednesday5
  • Green plantains, rock hard3
  • Butternut squash, standing in for calabaza1 medium
  • Cubanelle peppers, or 2 green bell plus 2 poblano4
  • Red bell pepper1
  • Green beans1 lb
  • Eggplant2 lb
  • Cilantro, stems and all2 large bunches
  • Culantro or recao, if you happen to see it1 bunch
  • Habaneros3
  • Limes4
  • Fresh pineapple or a small can of chunkssmall

International and Latin aisle

  • Canned gandules, pigeon peas2 cans
  • Canned pink or small red beans2 cans
  • Alcaparrado, or green olives plus a small jar of capers1 jar
  • Tomato sauce2 small cans
  • Ground annatto or achiote1 jar
  • White vinegar1 bottle
  • Shredded mozzarella or a mild white cheese5 oz

Spice aisle, probably have

  • Dried oregano
  • Ground cumin
  • Ground coriander
  • Garlic powder
  • Onion powder
  • Black peppercorns
  • Turmeric
  • Bay leaves
  • Kosher salt

Cook Days

Timeline

Monday

0:00Sofrito. Everything into the blender in two batches. Jar 1.5 cups and freeze the rest in an ice cube tray.
0:15Mix the sazon and adobo. Build the pique and leave it on the counter.
0:25Score the pork skin, stab the deep slits, mash the paste, force it in. Rub the rest all over and leave it out 30 minutes.
0:45Cut the pork in two, into the Instant Pot with a cup of water. 75 minutes High Pressure.
0:50Cube the eggplant. Rinse the rice until the water runs clear. Chop the alcaparrado. Clean the blender.
1:10Make the mojo de ajo. It keeps, and Friday will thank you.
1:20Nothing to do. The pot is unattended for another 45 minutes.
2:20Natural release done. Pork out onto a board. Separate the fat from the cooking liquid.
2:25Skin off, dried, salted, into the air fryer at 400F for 12 to 15 minutes. Pull the meat, and put 1 lb into a container for Wednesday first.
2:30Arroz con gandules: fry the sofrito in pernil fat, build it, rice in, liquid in, hard boil, then cover and 20 minutes on low.
2:35Berenjena guisada in cast iron alongside. Six minutes high, then covered for 15.
3:00Rice rests 10 minutes off the heat. Break up the cuerito.
3:10Build Tuesday's container first, then plate dinner.

Wednesday

0:00Oven to 375F. Peel and slice the ripe plantains lengthwise.
0:05Fry the plantains in batches, 2 to 3 minutes a side. Drain and salt.
0:20Picadillo in the same pan: sofrito, spices, shredded pernil, tomato sauce, olives. 10 minutes, then cool.
0:32Habichuelas started in the Instant Pot. Sofrito, then everything in, 4 minutes pressure.
0:35Beat the eggs. Fold one into the cooled picadillo. Assemble the pastelon in layers.
0:45Pastelon into the oven, 30 minutes.
0:48Beans done. Quick release, then simmer uncovered 5 minutes, mashing some squash against the side.
1:15Pastelon out. Rest 15 minutes before cutting.
1:30Plate.

Friday

0:00Marinate the beef and put it in the fridge.
0:08Peel and cut the green plantains.
0:15First fry at 325F, 4 minutes a side. Drain and smash all of them. Set aside.
0:30Squash and green beans in cast iron, 15 minutes total. Into a bowl.
0:45Pan wiped and very hot. Beef scraped, patted dry, seared 90 seconds a side in two batches. Out.
0:49Onions in, 8 minutes. Sazon and the reserved marinade, 1 minute.
0:58Beef back in with the water, 5 minutes. Lime off the heat.
1:00Tostones second fry: air fryer at 400F for 8 minutes, or 375F oil for 2 minutes a side. Salt immediately, mojo alongside, straight to the table.