Sunday, 05 February 2012

• This How We Do Lasagna: Piñon

  

   So, what's a Piñon? Well, to put it simply, it's a Puerto Rican lasagna!

  Yep, this is how we do lasagna in Puerto Rico. It's a very delicious dish! It's a typical plate that's often made in the homes of many Puerto Ricans. Piñon is very traditional!

  What does this recipe contain?

  This dish contains fried sweet plantains, cheddar cheese, mozarella cheese, beaten eggs, and ground beef!

  Of course, we all add our own "special" touches to it! Like for example, in my family; french cut green beans are added to the ground beef. It tastes heavenly!

  The process of cooking this is practically the same as when you cook any lasagna (only difference is no pasta and no sauce).

  My Steps for Preparation:

  1. I use the already fried sweet plantains that can be purchased frozen (it's better than starting from scratch), it's recommended to heat up the plantains a little so that they can be easier to place on the glass or ceramic container of your choice, otherwise its frozen consistency won't allow you to properly place the rest of the ingredients without it falling apart. And if you heat the plantains too much; they'll be burnt and hard after you do the final step. I say this from personal experience.

  2. You can season the meat to your liking, just don't add any kind of sauce (allow it to be cooked in its own juice, adding a little water helps).

  3. After you place the first floor of plantains, you'll then place the cooked ground meat and cheese (if you want cheese in it), then you continue doing the same thing in all the floor levels you add (like how you do it when making normal lasagna).

  4. When you've finished preparing your Piñon, the last thing to add is beaten eggs. The eggs are like the "glue" in this whole dish, they'll keep all of the ingredients in place; all you do is pour the eggs evenly making sure you get all the corners. How many eggs to use depends on the size of of your Piñon; when I make a large one, I use 3-4 eggs (you don't need to use a lot of eggs).

  5. After you've finished the main preparations the final step to take is to place it in your oven. The temperature and time you need to leave your Piñon in your oven depends on the size; it'll let you know when it's ready when you see the top of your Piñon dark golden and the egg's consistency should be solid (cooked).

  These are the steps I take when cooking this dish. For some it might seem like a handful, but it's a lot easier than it looks (if you use frozen already fried sweet plantains, if you want to do it with a real plantain and fry it yourself...trust me when I say... I'll take you forever!).

  Sometimes we serve this with rice and beans as a side dish (rice and beans for us is like daily bread, it's a huge tradition!), or with yellow rice and pigeon peas! But you can serve it with whatever side dish you want! Trust me...no matter what you eat it with, it'll taste glorious!

  So, what do you think about this particular dish? Would you be willing to try it out?

  • 12:30 PM
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