Plátanos Rellenos de Picadillo Jarocho

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Deep heavy skillet or clay cazuela for frying
• •Potato masher or molcajete
• •Wide skillet for the picadillo
• •Slotted spoon or frying spider
• •Wire rack set over a sheet pan
• •Kitchen thermometer

Instructions

1. 1

   Ripen and boil the plantains

   You want plátano macho so ripe the skins have gone black, because ripe means sweet and the sweetness is half the dish. Slit each plantain down its length, peel it, and cut into two-inch chunks. Drop them into a pot of salted boiling water and cook until a fork slides through with no resistance, about eighteen to twenty minutes. Drain well and let them sit five minutes to dry off. A waterlogged plantain makes a slack dough that will not hold the filling.

2. 2

   Make the plantain dough

   While the plantain is still hot, mash it smooth with a potato masher or in a molcajete. Work in the flour and salt a little at a time, kneading right in the bowl, until you have a soft, pliable dough that holds its shape and no longer sticks to your hands. If it stays tacky, add a spoonful more flour. If it cracks and feels dry, wet your hands and knead the moisture back in. Cover it and set it aside.

   Taste the dough before you shape anything. It should be faintly sweet and properly salted. Bland plantain dough makes a bland relleno, and no amount of picadillo fixes it.
3. 3

   Brown the beef

   Melt three tablespoons of manteca de cerdo in a wide skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and translucent, about five minutes, then stir in the garlic for one minute more, just until you smell it. Add the ground beef, break it up with a wooden spoon, and cook until it loses its pink and any water it gives off has cooked away, about eight minutes. The beef should be frying in the fat, not boiling in its own liquid. La manteca es el sabor.

4. 4

   Build the picadillo jarocho

   Pour in the tomato puree and add the chile jalapeño, raisins, almonds, olives, and capers. Tuck in the cinnamon stick, cloves, bay leaf, thyme, marjoram, black pepper, and salt. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered, stirring now and then, until the mixture turns thick, glossy, and nearly dry, fifteen to twenty minutes. This is the agridulce, the sweet and the savory in one pan, the Spanish pantry meeting the Gulf coast. Fish out the cinnamon stick, cloves, and bay leaf, spread the picadillo on a plate, and cool it completely.

   Cook the picadillo drier than feels right. If it weeps liquid when it mounds on a spoon, it will burst the plantain open in the hot lard. A dry filling is a sealed relleno.
5. 5

   Fill and shape

   With lightly floured or wet hands, take about a quarter cup of dough and flatten it into a disc a little under half an inch thick. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of cooled picadillo into the center. Fold the dough up and around the filling and work it closed into an oval the shape of a small football, smoothing every seam and crack with a wet fingertip. Set each one on a floured tray. You should get twelve to fourteen. No me vengas con atajos: a single open seam lets the lard rush in and the filling out.

6. 6

   Chill, then heat the lard

   Chill the shaped rellenos for fifteen to twenty minutes to firm up; they hold together far better cold. Meanwhile, heat about an inch and a half of manteca de cerdo in a deep heavy skillet or clay cazuela to 350°F (175°C). If you do not have a thermometer, drop in a pinch of dough. It should sizzle steadily on contact, not sink quietly and not spit violently.

7. 7

   Fry until deep gold

   Lower the rellenos into the lard a few at a time, never crowding the pan, and fry, turning once or twice, until the shells are deep golden brown and crisp all over, three to four minutes. The crust firms up and takes on mahogany edges where the sugars in the ripe plantain caramelize. Lift them out with a spider and drain on a wire rack, not paper, so the bottoms stay crisp.

8. 8

   Serve hot

   Eat them hot, while the shell still crackles against the soft sweet plantain and the savory picadillo inside. Pile them on a platter lined with banana leaf, crumble queso fresco over the top, and serve with frijoles negros, a fresh tomato and jalapeño salsa, and lime. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •The plantains must be black-ripe, not yellow. Yellow plátano macho is starchy and bland and gives you a savory shell when you need a sweet one. If yours are still yellow, leave them on the counter four or five days until the skins blacken and give a little when you press them. You cannot rush ripeness, so buy them ahead. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado, they will sell you the blackest ones for less because nobody else wants them.
• •Fry in manteca de cerdo. This is not the place to argue. The plantain drinks a little of the fat as it fries, and the lard is the thread that ties this dish to every Black coastal kitchen in the Americas that fries plantain. Neutral oil will cook them, but you lose the flavor that makes them jarocho. La manteca es el sabor.
• •Make the picadillo a day ahead. It is easier to handle cold, it seals into the dough without melting it, and the canela, clove, and almond settle into something deeper overnight. A warm, wet picadillo is the single most common reason rellenos fall apart in the fryer.
• •To stretch the meat the way a home cook does, fold one small boiled, diced potato into the picadillo. It softens the budget without softening the flavor. Cooks on this coast have fed families on less for generations.

Advance Preparation

• •The picadillo can be made up to two days ahead and refrigerated. The flavor only deepens, and cold picadillo is far easier to seal inside the dough.
• •Boil and mash the plantain and shape the rellenos a few hours ahead. Keep them covered and chilled, then fry just before serving.
• •These are at their best straight out of the lard and they do not reheat crisp. If you must hold them, keep fried rellenos in a 200°F (95°C) oven on a rack for up to thirty minutes, but fry to order whenever you can.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 430g)