Yellow Plantain and Meat Pie

(Pastelon de Amarillos)

1. 1 pound ground beef
2. 5 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
3. 1/2 cup basic recaito (see Freddie's Recaito recipes below)
4. 1/2 cup manzanilla olives, chopped
5. 1/2 cup golden raisins
6. 1/ pound green beans, cooked
7. 1 cup tomato sauce
8. 1 teaspoon salt
9. 1 teaspoon dried oregano
10. 1/2 tablespoon black pepper
11. 7 very ripe yellow plantains, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
12. 1/2 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
13. 6 eggs, beaten
14. oil for frying

Brown the meat in a large frying pan. Add the next 9 ingredients and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350F. Heat the oil and fry the plantains until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Spread 1/2 of the filling in the bottom of a 9-inch square baking pan. Add a layer of 1/2 of the plantain slices and cover with the remaining filling. Add the mozzarella cheese. Top with the remaining plantain slices. Pour the eggs over all. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the eggs are set. Kate's Notes: Here are the changes I would make in the future. This is definitely too much for a 9"x9" pan. I doubled it, thinking to put it in a bigger, deeper foil pan but I only used about 3/4 of the meat mixture, but then I had used closer to 3 lbs. of meat than 2 lbs. I used 2 cans of DelMonte diced tomatoes. That seems about right for the amount of meat. One pound of green beans seemed like way too much. I would use 1/2-3/4 lb. for 2 lbs. of meat. Seven is definitely too many plantains. I bought 8 for a double recipe and ended up using only 4 of them for the 2 lbs. of meat. Cheese amount is okay, although I only used about 3/4 lb. I could have used the whole amount.

1. 2 pounds ground beef
2. 2 cans diced tomatoes (plain or seasoned with onion, garlic, and/or
3. oregano)(this replaces the
4. fresh tomatoes and the tomato sauce in the original recipe)
5. 1 cup recaito (I used the 3rd version)
6. 1 cup manzanilla olives, chopped (I left these out since I hate olives!)
7. 1 cup golden raisins
8. 1/2-3/4 pound green beans, cooked
9. 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste (due to salt in canned tomatoes I did not
10. double the salt)
11. 2 teaspoons dried oregano
12. 1/2 tablespoon black pepper
13. 4 very ripe, yellow plantains, peeled and cut into 1/2"-thick slices
14. 1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
15. 9 eggs, beaten
16. 1 cup milk
17. oil for frying

Freddie's Recamto

Basic recipe:

1. 1/2 small green pepper
2. 1/2 medium yellow onion
3. 2 cloves garlic
4. 1/4 tsp. black pepper

The best recipe: Same ingredients as in the basic and better plus: 2 recao leaves (use parsley if recao isn't availiable)

Chop up all the ingredients into chunks and process them in your food processor which is the best and process until it's all chopped up to resemble oatmeal (pictured). If you don't have a food processor use a blender, if neither chop everything up into very tiny pieces. Recamto can be used for all types of foods, and they don't have to be Puerto Rican.

—

Kate Connally