Cuchifritos y Chinchorros (gracias a Jeannette)

la 8
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

This post is in part a response to Jeannette's post on her more than excellent blog Sazon Boricua.

http://www.sazonboricua.com/

Where she posts recipes of great puertorican dishes. In her last post she covers some of the street/beach/neighborhood food a lot of us grew up with. I took my kids over xmas and we hit some of the highlights.



That would be the ubiquitous sign that precludes running a tab.
One of the great street foods in PR are pinchos, which are seasoned pork or beef skewers cooked over charcoal and served with bread and a beer.



These were awesome





Another great place to eat in PR towns is in the local panaderia or bread/pastry/deli



where you can go for a sandwich or more fancy fair, such as white asparagus



Flan



or octopus salad



Along the beach in Luquillo there are some very well known stops for a quick or not so quick meal. We sampled a few such as pionono
(plantain stuffed with beef)



Lobster empanada



alcapurrias (see Jeannette's post for recipe)



and empanadilla (empanada) of chapin (which is a coral reef fish)



Please check out the Sazon Boricua post for excellent recipes.

Empanadas for school

empanadas
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

The boy volunteered me make food for almost 30 people in his spanish class. It was to be a latino food. We ran through some options, maybe arroz con pollo, paella but all seemed to difficult to transport and make 24 hrs in advance. We settled on empanadas as it is a ubiquotous dish in latin america (with regional variations) and the baked version was easier to mass produce in our kitchen than the fried kind.
I started on the filling, making a sofrito of carrots, onion, green pepper, celery, garlic, and shallots



and cooked it down.



Then we cooked some ground beef, browned in a pan with garlic, salt and a pinch of sugar.



The meat and sofrito was combined, chopped cilantro and oregano added, then on to the assembly



a couple of spoons of filling in premade (store bought) empanada wrappers



we crimped the edges



brushed them with an egg wash, and baked them at 375 degrees for around 20 minutes, till they looked like this



We made 60 (judging two per person) as far as the boy says people liked them. Will need to make some for the family next.