Wednesday · cooks for Wed, Thu
Pastelon de Amarillos
sweet plantain, pernil picadillo, egg, stewed beans with potato
Layers 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.
Method
7 steps- Oven to 375F. Peel the ripe plantains and slice them lengthwise 3/8 in thick.
- Heat the oil in cast iron over medium. Fry the slices in batches, 2 to 3 minutes a side, until deep gold and caramelized at the edges and soft enough to bend. Drain on paper towels and salt lightly.
- Same pan, pour off all but a tablespoon of oil. Sofrito 4 minutes, then sazon and cumin for 1 minute. Add the shredded pernil, tomato sauce, and alcaparrado and cook 6 to 8 minutes until the liquid is nearly gone and the edges of the pork are catching. Taste for salt, cool 10 minutes, then fold in one of the beaten eggs.
- Assemble in a buttered 8x8 dish or a 10 in cast iron pan: a layer of plantains edge to edge, half the picadillo, a third of the cheese. Repeat. Finish with a plantain layer, pour the remaining beaten egg over the top, and scatter the last of the cheese.
- Bake 30 minutes until set and browned on top. Rest 15 minutes before cutting, because it will fall apart if you go in hot.
- Habichuelas, in the Instant Pot while it bakes: Saute Medium, oil, sofrito 4 minutes. Sazon 30 seconds, tomato sauce 1 minute. Add the potatoes, squash, beans with their liquid, water, alcaparrado, bay leaf, and 1 tsp salt. Pressure Cook High 4 minutes, quick release.
- Switch to Saute and simmer uncovered 5 minutes to thicken, mashing a few pieces of squash against the side of the pot to body it up.
Why It Works
- The plantains have to be nearly black. As a plantain ripens its starch converts to sugar, from about 2 percent in a green one to closer to 20 percent in a black one. That sugar is what caramelizes in the pan and what makes the dish. A yellow but firm plantain fries into something starchy and bland and no amount of seasoning rescues it.
- Egg is the structure. There is no bechamel and no flour here. The beaten egg folded into the filling and poured over the top sets as it bakes and is the only thing holding the layers together.
- Rest fifteen minutes. The egg proteins are still loose at 375F and firm as they cool. Cutting immediately is the single most common way this dish gets ruined.
- Mash some of the squash. Butternut is high in pectin and starch, so breaking a few pieces down thickens the bean liquid into something that clings to a spoon with no roux and no cornstarch. Any winter squash or a boiled potato does the same job.
Day Two
Pastelon in its pan, covered, 4 days. It actually slices more cleanly on day two once it is fully cold. Beans in a separate container, 5 days.
Pastelon goes in a 350F oven or the air fryer for 12 minutes, uncovered, so the top re-crisps. The microwave works but goes soggy. Beans go in a saucepan with a splash of water over low heat for 6 minutes.
A crisp lager with lime, Medalla or Presidente
Pastelon is sweet, rich, and salty all at once, so you want something cold and uncomplicated that resets the palate rather than adding another flavor to track. Any Mexican-style lager does the same work.