Friday, July 23, 2010

All by myself: cooking for one.

Let me tell you, I love to cook. I do. Which is something my mother finds hilarious because I picked up cooking when I got into university. Before that, I could only make scrambled eggs and toast. But now, I have over 72 cookbooks and love to whip up a storm. Often I take food for my coworkers. I'm sort of a mother hen.

However, this doesn't extend to home. Back in the apartment, there's only Genghis and I, which sucks. I mean, when Damian comes over on the weekend, I occasionally cook, but we usually end up going out to take advantage of the food that's seriously lacking on the Wild Wild Boricua West. Though the Western side of the island's cuisine is picking up, we usually have to drive at least half an hour to get to an awesome spot other then the ones that are readily available (like the Mayagüez classic Don Quijote).

So when I dine alone, I usually just make myself a sandwich or some cornmeal, which pisses Damian off because he says I'm not feeding myself properly. True, I guess. But I guess I just don't like cooking for myself. Even if I get to take the leftovers to the office the next day and save money on lunch.

I'm trying to wean myself off that annoying habit and forcing myself to cook dinner. For myself. I tell myself it's a challenge to improve my cooking and take on dishes that I haven't really done before. Like this. A very basic Boricua mofongo.

I had never made mofongo before in my life. This is a blasphemy if you're a Puerto Rican. Seriously! I decided to go all out and make myself some mofongo stuffed with garlic shrimp cooked in butter.







Interested in making mofongo? Here's the basic recipe.

Mofongo for one (as my mother taught me):

Ingredients:

1 green plantain
1 garlic clove
olive oil in non-stingy amounts
salt to taste (I never add salt, but everyone else does...)

(There's also the option of adding bacon! Many in PR do this, so feel free to include bacon into the mix.)

Add some oil into a frying pan and heat it up. In the meantime, open and chop the plantain into several slices around .5 of an inch thick. Carefully drop them in the pan and cook them until golden.

When golden, take them out. The garlic: you may cook it or leave it as is. Mash it up in a container and then throw in the cooked plantain and mash it up as well. Mix until garlic is evenly spread around plantain. Eat as is or shape it in a bowl to add filling! (Like I did with the garlic shrimp.)

(Note: Plantains are normally deep fried. My family's alternative is a bit healthier, as it uses less oil. You may deep fry if you want!)

Let me know if you try this! :)

1 comment:

Ilu said...

Yo tampoco cocino cuando estoy sola, no me gusta, no sé, siempre prefiero cocinar para alguien más!

Ah, otra cosa, ese mofongo se ve divino, claro, yo le hubiera añadido platanutres o chicharon solo para encontrar algo crujiente! jajajajaja pero esa soy yo que siempre me gusta llevar la contraria jajajajaja!