Tostones

One of the best side dishes to any Cuban meal are plantains as they can be made in a variety of ways. I’ve already posted a recipe for how to make platanos maduros, which are made with ripe plantains, and a recipe for plantain chips using green plantains. And another great way to make plantains is to make tostones using green, unripe plantains. In fact, tostones can be made using plantains that are green all the way to starting to turn yellow but are still firm. Very ripened plantains, like the kind you want for platanos maduros, won’t work for tostones. Tostones are really great because they can be eaten as is, lightly salted, or can be added to soups, roasts, and stews. Moreover, they are very simple and inexpensive to make, so have fun trying out this recipe and enjoy! 

   

Tostones Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 or more green plantains (you can use plantains that are firm and just starting to turn yellow)
• Corn or vegetable oil for frying
• Salt to taste (optional)

TOOLS NEEDED:

• A frying pan or small pot
• A knife and cutting board
• Forks or spatula for flipping and removing plantains from the oil
• Wire strainer

VIDEO DEMONSTRATION / INSTRUCTIONS

BRIEF DIRECTIONS (See the video demonstration for detailed instructions):

1. First, peel the plantains, cut into slices 1 inch thick, and reserve the peel for later (see video demonstration for further detail).
2. Fill a pot or frying pan with oil at least 2 inches deep. Heat the oil on high heat.
3. Once hot enough, carefully place the plantain slices in the pot/pan, so they are not overlapping. Reduce the heat to medium-high and cook the plantains for 2 minutes. Then flip the pieces over and continue to cook for 2 minutes or until they start to have a golden yellow color. Remove the plantains from the pot/pan and place on a plate.
4. Now take the plantain peel, place one cooked plantain piece on the peel, fold the peel over, and press down over the plantain slice with the palm of your hand. You want to squash and flatten the plantain a bit so that the slices are about ¼ inch thick (see video demonstration for visual). Repeat the process for the rest of the plantain pieces.
5. Next, place the plantains back into the oil and cook on medium-high heat for about 1 minute and 30 seconds flipping the tostones over ½ way through the cooking process. Cook the tostones until they are golden brown. Then remove the tostones from the oil, place on a plate, add a little salt over them (if you want), and serve!

***NOTE: The plantains will continue to cook once they are removed from the frying pan,

so remove them when they are starting to turn golden brown to avoid overcooking or burning     

them.

Cuban Empanadas

One of my viewers requested for me to post a Cuban Empanada recipe, so I figured why not! Empanadas are really delicious and can be made in a variety of ways. However, the Cuban empanadas made amongst my family are fried (not baked) because they did not have access to an oven while living in Cuba. I will be providing some instructions on how to bake these empanadas to give you a few options. There is also a lot of variability in how to fill the empanadas. Filling empanadas with picadillo or guava are commonplace, but you can really fill these with whatever you want -ropa vieja, pollo en salsa, Cuban-style shrimp, etc. Just get as creative as you'd like! For this recipe, I am focusing on empanadas filled with picadillo. The empanadas are medium-large sized, about 6 inches by 4 inches, so you can choose to make them smaller or larger. Furthermore, the empanadas are light, flaky, and a bit crunchy with a slightly salty and sweet meat filling. The filling complements the outer shell of the empanada perfectly! So have fun trying this recipe and enjoy!

Cuban Empanadas Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

For the Picadillo/Meat Filling:

• 1 lbs of ground beef
• ½ of a large red pepper
• 1 medium-sized onion
• ¹/₃ of a 5.75oz jar of green olives
• 1 cup of raisins
• ¾ tbsp garlic powder
• 2 tbsp cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 packet of sazón con asafran or ½ tablespoon saffron

For the Empanada Dough:

•  2 ½ cups of flour
• ¹/₃ cup of shortening
• ²/₃  cup of cold (ice) water plus ¼ cup extra
• 1 ¼ tsp of salt

For frying:

• vegetable or corn oil (a few cups or more depending on the size of your pot)

TOOLS NEEDED:

• A medium-sized pot
• Rolling pin
• Fork, knife, cutting board, large spoon, and measuring utensils
• A food processor (optional)

VIDEO DEMONSTRATION / INSTRUCTIONS

BRIEF DIRECTIONS (See the video demonstration for detailed instructions):

1. Prepare the empanada dough first. Put the flour in a medium-sized bowl, add the salt, and whisk to loosen the flour and evenly distribute the salt. Then cut the shortening into the flour using your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse grains. Next, add in the water a few tablespoons at a time and use a fork to mix. Continue to do this until all the water is added and the mixture formed large chunks. Now use your hands to press the mixture together into one large ball that stays together. Wrap the ball in plastic wrap, then place in the refrigerator for 1 hour. While waiting make the meat filling.
2. Collect the ingredients. Soak the raisins in water for about 20 minutes (put enough water so that the raisins are covered, the water will be discarded anyway. You can set the raisins to soak before making the empanada dough). Finely chop the red pepper, and onion with a food processor. Cut the green olives in half or in thirds.
3. Put the meat in a large pot, break up the meat, and cook on high heat to lightly brown the meat, but continue to stir and break up the meat. You don't want there to be clumps, it should be very refined.
4. Next, add the red pepper and onion to the meat and mix. Add the seasonings, raisins, and olives to the meat and mix thoroughly. Then reduce the heat to medium and let cook for 20 to 25 minutes. Now turn off the heat and start rolling out the empanada dough.
5. Take the empanada dough out of the refrigerator and separate into 1 <iframe frameborder="0" width="480" height="270" src="//www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x6i6mg5" allowfullscreen allow="autoplay"></iframe> ½ inch balls (about 12 to 13).
6. Now on a lightly floured surface, take one of the dough balls and roll it out to be 1/16th of an inch thick (very thin) by 7 inches in diameter. Make sure to keep it relatively circular, but any imperfections can be trimmed later. Add 5 or 6 tablespoons of the meat filling to the center, then wet the edges of the dough all around the meat and fold over the dough pressing from the meat outward to avoid getting air trapped inside and fully seal the empanada. Now use a fork to crimp the flat edge of the empanada which also helps seal it, and use a knife to even out the edges. Repeat the process for all the empanadas (Note: you can take the scraps and any excess dough, roll it out, cut into smaller pieces, and fry it as is, flat, without any filling, which tastes great with just a bit of powdered sugar and cinnamon)!
7. Now we can fry the empanadas. Take a medium-sized, deep pot, fill with at least 2 ½ inches of vegetable oil, and heat on high heat. You can use a small piece of the empanada dough to check if the oil is hot enough. If you see bubbles, the oil is ready.
8. Carefully, place one empanada in the oil (you can use a spatula to place the empanada in the oil to avoid splashing the oil) then let cook on each side for about 1 minute or until the outside is light brown then remove from the oil and place on a wire rack (Note: the first empanada will take longer to cook, and the rest will cook extremely fast). For the remaining empanadas reduce the heat to medium-high and cook for 20 seconds on each side or until they are starting to turn light brown and remove from the oil and place on a wire rack (Note: the empanadas will continue to cook once removed from the oil and should end up a golden color, so don't overcook them in the oil; see video for visual).
9. Once all of the empanadas are fried, they can be served!

Note: you can also bake the empanadas if you want....just bake them at 400 degrees F for 10 to 15 minutes on each side or until they brown. Be sure to flip the empanadas over halfway into the cooking process.