Culebra Q Flag Pastelon

A few weeks ago, a LOT of food was delivered to me by angels good friends who were taking free food around the island. There were all sorts of things in those many bags, one being canned beef. I've never used canned beef before, to cook anything (I'd been using the cans as hand weights, but that's not the same). Then I saw Digna's post about using it for pastelon. According to Wikipedia, pastelon is the following:

Pastelón is a Puerto Rican casserole dish layered like Italian lasagne made with exclusively sweet plantains, stuffed with mincemeat, vegetables, and bound together with beaten eggs. Wikipedia

Place of origin: Puerto Rico

Some people think it's the same as piñon, but I am smart enough to not go there. 

It also happens to be one of my very favorite Puerto Rican dishes. Some people also really like corned beef hash. That's another thing to do with this meat that you will never see anything about from me.

You can slice plantain the fancy way, cut in half
and then cut horizontally, like you are filleting a fish
or cut down vertically while holding its very slippery flesh.
I chose vertically.

Frying ripe plantains is something I do have some experience with. They were a childhood side dish that my Dad and a family friend Pompeo would make, from Cuba days. Salud to you two! Whenever I eat them, it's one of the most comforting of comfort foods.

I've thinking about making pastelon for weeks now, slowly remembering to buy this or that. There are as many recipes for this traditional dish as there are for potato salad, or lasagna. Whether it's cultural or family tradition doesn't really matter, what matters is the basics of ripe plantains, some sort of meat and beaten eggs. Some say cheese, some say no cheese. I chose cheese. Some include vegetables, some don't. Are olives a vegetable? 

This is a messy business, or at least it is in my case,
 but fun. If one really went nuts, making your own
sofrito, etc., it could be a day of fun, but I cheated.
I cheated with the cheese too but only because I
couldn't find a block of mozzarella and
I'm not a queso blanco fan. Shoot me.

I went basic. The only other time I've ever made pastelon was more than ten years ago at a friend's celebration of life dinner on St. Croix. I had, basically, all of the ingredients but had no idea what I was doing, so I called the only person I knew then who made it and served me some of its deliciousness, Neil Romero, here on Culebra. He talked me through the recipe, I made it, it was excellent. It didn't hurt that for the meat some wonderful local Crucian ladies had made the filling for about two hundred empanadas and there was plenty left for me to play with. Mine was absolutely not even close to as good as theirs, but still, canned beef and all, it turned out  to be pretty good.

As usual, I looked at probably five recipes and went with what I had and what sounded right to me. As usual, play with your food!

First I heated up the canned beef, then drained it of a LOT of fat
and extra liquid.

Then I added sofrito, tomato sauce (that had some tomatoes in it),
green olives, cilantro, garlic, and I threw in a dash of cumin.
Because I could.
I didn't have adobo or Sazon, it worked anyway. 

It was time to start layering. Let me say this about that, I definitely did NOT have enough plantain! This isn't a big dish, but two pretty good sized plantains only gave me enough for the bottom layer and a middle, with a few token strips on top. Lesson learned.

Once all layered up, it was time for the beaten eggs to be poured over the whole thing.

Ok, pretty much the whole thing.

Into the 350 degree oven for 25 or 30 minutes, until it gets that golden look. I almost hit it with the broiler, but it looked good enough as it was. 

Lo and behold, it was good enough!

I know, the plantain looks like bacon. It's not.

In the end you have this sweet and savory dish, a bit of slight zing from the olives, the mellowness of the tomatoes, with melty cheesy goodness. Truthfully, I don't taste the eggs at all, I think they just get sucked into the other ingredients and become the tie that binds.

I probably need to make it again, to use up some of these ingredients that were just for its own self. There's plenty of time.

Have a wysiwyg Wednesday! Do something worthwhile. Willingly.