Dominican · Main
Pastelón de Plátano Maduro
- Intermediate
- 45 min
- roughly 3 of 4 for cost
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a briny, maritime salinity, finishing long and savory.
Ingredients
- 1.4 kg very ripe plantains (about 6), skins fully black
- 60 g butter, plus more for the dish
- 120 ml evaporated milk
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 500 g minced beef
- 60 g sazón dominicano
- 30 g tomato paste
- 40 g green olives, sliced
- 20 g capers, rinsed
- 30 ml neutral oil
- 5 g dried oregano, rubbed
- 10 g salt
- 150 g mild semi-hard white cheese, grated
Equipment
Grater / zester
The skills inside
Searing: the hard crustSteaming: basket, leaf and lidMashing & puréeingShaping by hand
Allergen screen
Found: dairy · egg
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Peel the plantains, cut them into lengths and boil until a knife meets no resistance, then drain and leave them in the colander to steam dry.
- Mash hot with the butter, evaporated milk and half the salt to a smooth, sticky paste that holds a furrow, cool to warm, then beat in one egg.
- Brown the beef hard in the oil without moving it much, add the sazón, tomato paste, oregano and the rest of the salt, and cook until the pan is dry and the fat runs red, then fold in the olives and capers.
- Press half the plantain into a buttered 22 cm dish with wet hands, spread the meat and the cheese over it, cover with the remaining plantain and brush the top with the second egg.
- Bake at 190C (375F) until the top is burnished and the edges have pulled away from the dish, about 30 minutes, then rest 20 minutes before cutting. 30 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Shaping by hand 85 recipes
- The pieces match: weighed, or judged against each other rather than by dividing the mass by eye, so that no piece is half again the size of its neighbour.
- Surfaces are smooth and unbroken with no cracks, tears, or dry patches, and the seams are sealed and sitting underneath.
- The shape is defined and it holds while the tray waits: it has not slumped, spread, or relaxed back out of its form.
- Nothing is trapped that should not be: no air pocket where filling should be, no filling breaking through the surface, and no excess flour greying the outside.
- They finish together in the heat: no piece done while another is still raw, which is the only test that the first mark was met.
Where it goes wrong The dough was worked past its point or shaped without a rest, so it fought back: the pieces spring out of shape on the tray and bake tight, uneven, and torn along the surface.
Mashing & puréeing 114 recipes
- Smooth to the degree the dish asks for, judged on the tongue rather than by eye: no lumps, no fibres, no grit, unless texture is the point.
- No gluey elasticity: a spoonful drops cleanly off the spoon rather than stretching in a rope behind it.
- The consistency holds: it mounds on a spoon and stays there, neither slumping flat nor standing so stiff that a spoon has to cut it.
- Nothing separates on the plate: no water or fat weeping out into a ring within a minute of serving.
- The colour is even throughout, with no streaks of unincorporated fat, liquid, or seasoning at the edges of the bowl.
Where it goes wrong A starchy ingredient met a high-speed blade, so the cells burst and released their starch: what should be light comes out as an elastic glue that lifts off the spoon in one mass.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec
- Also Right
- Tempranillo (Rioja Reserva)
- From the Taps
- Amber ale
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling water, make room
Tannin binds to seared protein and fat: each bite softens the wine, each sip resets the palate: the steakhouse equation.
Saved on this device and kept across visits: export from My Menu to move them.