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
20 steps- Oven to 375F. While it heats, peel the plantains and slice them lengthwise 3/8 in thick.
- Heat 3 tbsp of the olive oil in cast iron over medium, until it shimmers.
- Fry the slices in batches, 2 to 3 minutes a side, until deep gold at the edges and soft enough to bend. Add more oil between batches as the pan goes dry.
- Drain the slices on paper towels and salt them lightly while they are still hot.
- Pour off all but 1 tbsp of oil from the pan, keep it over medium, and add the sofrito. Cook 4 minutes.
- Add the sazon and cumin for 1 minute, then the shredded pernil, tomato sauce and alcaparrado.
- Cook 6 to 8 minutes, until the liquid is nearly gone and the edges of the pork catch on the pan.
- Taste for salt, then pull the picadillo off the heat and cool it 10 minutes.
- Fold half the beaten egg into the cooled picadillo. Save the rest for the top.
- Butter an 8x8 baking dish or a 10 in cast iron pan.
- Lay a layer of plantains edge to edge across the bottom, spread half the picadillo over them, and scatter a third of the mozzarella.
- Repeat the three layers: plantains, the rest of the picadillo, another third of the cheese.
- Finish with a last layer of plantains, pour the remaining beaten egg evenly over the top, and scatter the last of the cheese.
- Bake 30 minutes, until set in the center and browned on top.
- Rest 15 minutes before cutting. It will fall apart if you go in hot.
- Habichuelas, while the pastelon bakes: Instant Pot on Saute Medium with 2 tbsp olive oil.
- Add 1/4 cup sofrito and cook 4 minutes, then the sazon for 30 seconds and the tomato sauce for 1 minute.
- Add the potatoes, squash, beans with their liquid, water, alcaparrado, bay leaf and 1 tsp salt.
- Pressure Cook High 4 minutes, then quick release.
- Switch back to Saute and simmer uncovered 5 minutes to thicken, mashing a few pieces of squash against the side of the pot to give the liquid body.
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.