Episode 9: A Puerto Rican Jaunt

Last month's issue of Saveur had a mouth-watering article, Island Holiday: Christmas in Puerto Rico, accompanied by several tempting recipes. This recipe for piononos looked appealing, but I wasn't in the mood for the full calorie bomb effect of deep-fried plantains. Instead I just did the portion of the recipe for the filling, to serve as a picadillo. My only modifications were to omit the achiote (though I probably could have gotten it at La Bodega Latina on Congress Street, but didn't have the time), and to pit and use the cracked green Turkish olives I got from Al-Ahram, instead of the standard pitted Manzanilla olives with pimentos.

Apologies to those who find images of simmering meats monotonous or offensive, rather than appetizing.

Another change I had to make related to the amount of tomato in the recipe. Following it strictly would have resulted in a picadillo that was too liquid. You can either simmer for 15 minutes after adding the tomatoes and their juices, or add only hand-crushed tomatoes and simmer for only 5.

The result was delicious, with just enough raisins and olives to bring a salty-sweet savor to each bite. I served it with some non-traditional accompaniments: pan-roasted root vegetables (carrot, parsnip and sunchoke) with garlic, thyme and rosemary, and plain basmati rice. For a more traditional set of sides, use the sofrito as a base for some habichuelas rosas (red beans) and make the arroz con gandules.

(Sorry if this entry reads like an ad for Saveur--I love that magazine.)