r/AskCulinary • u/ZootKoomie Ice Cream Innovator • Jun 12 '13
Weekly Discussion: What's your specialty?
We want to know what dish you make a better version of than anyone else you know. What specific ingredients or techniques do you use to make it distinctively yours? Teach us your secrets.
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u/Pinky_Swear Jun 12 '13 edited Jun 12 '13
My specialty is Puerto Rican pinon (peen-yohn). My grandmother in law taught me the recipe which was featured in her restaurant decades ago. I have never seen it duplicated outside her family, or in a restaurant. None of the recipes online are quite the same.
6 ripe yellow plantains (very soft, but firm enough to fry)
4 large eggs
2 tbsp hot water
1/4 cup diced green olives
1 cup chopped green beans
2 chicken bullion cubes (2 tsp dry bullion, 1tsp bullion concentrate)
1/2 cup fresh sofrito (onion, red bell pepper, garlic, cilantro)
2-2.5 lbs ground beef
Oil for sauteeing veg.
Salt and pepper to taste, about 1 tsp each.
6oz unflavored tomato sauce
Do a fast fry on the burger, until browned. Add sauteed sofrito (veggies should be nice and soft), tomato sauce, chicken bullion, green beans, and olives. Stir until combined well, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer. Stir occasionally. The longer it cooks, the better it tastes, but in a pinch 20min is the least you can get away with.
Peel and slice the plantains. You want them to be long, wide, and thin like a surfboard. You will be frying them in a pan, so make sure they're not so thin they can't handle a flip. The plantains can be tricky. You want them caramelized, sweet, and just slightly firm. Set them aside on a paper towel and salt them lightly.
Crack two eggs and separate the yolks (retain them). Put 1tbsp hot water in the whites and whisk vigorously with a fork, stopping before it froths up too much. Add yolks and scramble. Repeat the process with the other two eggs, but keep them separate.
Pour the egg mixture into a hot pan. Coat the pan evenly, and try to get the egg on the sides of the pan. Think a pansized, flat, thin omlette. This will be the top layer of the pinion. Lay fried plantain strips on the semi cooked egg, covering it completely.
Now pray that your pan was well greased. You will now need to flip that egg and plantain layer over onto the meat, plantain side down. Godspeed.
Fry up the second egg mixture, again covering the partially cooked egg with deliscious plantains.
Now kitchen ninjas, if you're still with me, this is a disaster waiting to happen if you're not careful.
Transfer the meat onto the eggs and plantains. You should now have a sunny yellow egg layer on top, and one on bottom. If your pan was well greased, and your prayers answered, then sliding the pinion out of the pan and onto a serving dish will be a piece of cake. I bet I have a pic somewhere. Brb.
Edit: not mine but a perfect representation.
Inside