Pastelón de Platano Maduro (Yellow Plaintains Cake)
By Lesly Nuñez
ENG 1430
Ingredients
- 8 yellow plantains
- 1/4 lb grated Cheddar cheese
- 1lb ground cattle meat
- 2 spoons of butter
- 4 eggs
- Half a can of carnation milk
- Salt (as you like)
- Two or three cloves of mashed garlic
- 1 diced onion
- 1 diced red pepper
- diced greenness (as you like)
- 1/2 a cup of tomato sauce
- 1 diced plum tomato
- 1/2 cube of seasoning (caldo de Gallina)
- extra virgin olive oil
Steps
Meat:
To cook the meat we first start by boiling it until it softens along with salt fit to our taste and the entire portion of garlic. When it gets soft enough, pour the left over water out. Then set up a frying pan with the olive oil, the diced onion, greenness, red pepper, plum tomato, seasonings, and tomato sauce. When the tomato sauce dissolves into the oil, add the meat and stir until all the ingredients are mixed with the meat. After 10 minutes of stirring your meat is done.
Plantains:
To cook the yellow plantains is relatively easy; however, this is the main part that the cake will consist of. Thus, it needs special care. To start, set a deep pan with a fair amount of water on the stove to boil. Before it boils, peel the 8 yellow plantains and cut them in half. Boil with a fair amount of salt during 13 or more minutes, until they soften up. After they are done, take them out of the water and cut the pieces in the middle until you see little black seeds. Remove those black seeds from each piece. Next, take a mixing bowl and place the plantains in there with the butter, the eggs, the amount of milk and mix all these until the mixture gets compact as a mass.
Final touches:
In an aluminum pan, take some more melted butter and cover the pan with it. Next, place a layer of the yellow mass in the pan. Cover it from corner to corner with it, just like lasagna. Remember to leave enough yellow mass for another layer! Then, place all the meat already cooked and seasoned as a second layer in the pan. Make sure to cover from corner to corner. Consequently, place the last layer of the yellow mass on top of the meat, form corner to corner. Lastly, cover all with the grinded cheddar cheese. After the final touches, place the cake in the oven at 250° to 300° degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Divide into portions like lasagna.