Recipe?

A

Allie

Guest
does anyone know how to make habichuelas con arroz? (red bean & rice) I mean, what seasons and spices, etc I need. thank you in advance! :)

allie
 
A

Alexandra

Guest
Hey Allie, My boyfriend is Dominican and a really great cook. He takes a can of Goya habichuelas and adds a little fresh garlic, green pepper, Goya sazon, tiny bit of oregano, a half cube of chicken boullion, a little fresh cilantro, some olives and a tiny bit of olive juice and he lets it simmer for about 30 min. Then he mashes the beans through a strainer to give it a type of gravy consistency, returns the beans to the sauce it was cooking in, simmers about another 5 min. and then serves it over white rice.

I'm also wondering if anyone else knows the recipe for a type of dumpling called bollo?
 
N

Natasha

Guest
Well, just to add to Alexandra's message, I first make what is called a "sofrito". I am not sure how sofrito translates into English, but basically this is the base, if you will, of the seasoning of most dishes in Dominican cooking.

To make the sofrito, I use garlic (about "tres dientes de ajo"...does anyone know how to say this in English?), ground black pepper, a bit of salt, and a bit of coriander. All this is then mashed in a mortar and pestle to form almost a paste.

In a sauce pot, heat some vegetable oil or light olive oil (about a tablespoon). I add a couple of branches of cilantro, oregano, about a teaspoon of tomato paste for added color, pimentos and onions. My folks never added olives to beans so I don't either. Lastly, I add the paste from the mortar and pestle.

Sautee all the ingredients on slow heat for about a minute or so until onions are clear, but don't let the garlic paste burn or get sticky!

Add beans and the bean liquid. If you cook dry beans yourself, the liquid is very flavorful! It takes a long time to tenderize dry beans thus canned beans are the next best thing. I like the Goya pink beans instead of the red kidney beans much better. Also, Goya makes a ready-made sofrito, but it contains monosodium glutamate as do most products in the Goya line :-(

Let beans simmer on low/med heat until the beans begin to thicken. You might want to mash some, but not all, of the beans to speed the thickening process. The beans should not be ultra thick, nor too liquidy. Voila, you have beans...Dominican style :)

Regards,
Natasha
 
T

tgf

Guest
Re: Recipe? (Natasha)

Tres dientes de ajo = three cloves of garlic
 
N

Natasha

Guest
Re: Recipe? (Natasha)

Ah, yes, cloves. Thanks Tgf!

Regards,
Natasha