COPPERMofongo recipe
Green plantains fried twice then pounded in a wooden pilon with garlic and pork cracklings into a tight ball.
Ingredients
- 4 green plantains
- 150 g pork cracklings
- 6 clove garlic
- 500 ml olive oil
- 60 ml chicken broth
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
How to make Mofongo
- Peel 4 green plantains, cut into 2.5 cm rounds and soak 15 minutes in salted water.
- Fry them at 150 C for 6 minutes until tender but still pale, then drain.
- Raise the oil to 190 C and fry them again for 2 minutes until the edges crisp; this second fry is what gives mofongo its bite.
- Crush 6 garlic cloves with 1 teaspoon of salt and 2 tablespoons of the frying oil in a wooden pilon to a paste.
- Add the hot plantains a few at a time and pound them, never stir, until broken but still coarse.
- Pound in 150 g of pork cracklings and half a teaspoon of black pepper.
- Moisten with only 60 ml of hot chicken broth, just enough to bind; more turns it into a puree.
- Press the mixture into the pilon or a small bowl and turn it out as a tight dome, served at once with extra broth on the side.
What is Mofongo?
Mofongo is a traditional dish from Puerto Rico, cooked in a pan, and takes about 45 minutes from start to finish. It is built around olive oil, pork cracklings and chicken broth. The recipe below uses 7 ingredients and is written out step by step.
How long does Mofongo take?
At 45 minutes it is quicker than 86% of the 586 dishes in Copper's atlas. Copper's atlas has 51 dishes built on olive oil. The method runs to 8 steps, the longest being 15 minutes.
Any tips for making Mofongo?
Pound the hot plantains instead of stirring, and add just enough broth to bind, otherwise the mofongo turns into a puree.
How Mofongo compares
Pork cracklings appears in no other dish in the atlas.
Cooked with the same thing elsewhere
Other traditional dishes built on green plantain, from other countries.
- Olla de carne 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
- Tostones 🇨🇺 Cuba
- Mangú 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
- Sancocho 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
- Fufu 🇬🇦 Gabon
- Fufu 🇬🇳 Guinea
Copper documents Puerto Rico alongside 197 other countries. Every recipe is free to read, with the full ingredient list and every step.