Puerto Rican recipes for families

March 8, 2017 5:38 AM

I'm headed to Puerto Rico for a week on Saturday, during which time I'll be cooking for four adults and three children. I'd like to take advantage of local ingredients. No deep frying/sous vide-ing, and I'll be working with the tools of a vacation home kitchen. What should I make?
posted by billtron to Food & Drink (6 answers total)

Just speaking as a nuyorican, my concept of "Puerto Rican food" doesn't really include any ingredients I can't get locally, and a lot of it is very labor-intensive. This site has a pretty good list of traditional recipes (in English, too).

I make pernil pretty regularly at home (and you should too!), along with arroz con gandules. I hate the hassle of frying, but tostones can be shallow-fried (and are delicious), and can be further processed into mofongo (which is one of my favorite things, but again ... labor).

If you want to really go all out and spend all day cooking, you could make pasteles. As a bonus, I guess, yautia blanca (taro) might be hard to find in your neck of the woods, so this could be a unique "local" food.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:10 AM on March 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

I was really fond of having a mango for breakfast when visiting in-laws in PR. Mangos are insanely cheap down there, and it's not really cooking, they're still delicious (and likely to appeal to both kids and adults easily).
posted by dinty_moore at 8:06 AM on March 8, 2017

The chicken, for whatever reason, is spectacular down there. I don't know if is pastured, or what, but the chicken is so intensely chicken-y. So I'd fry some up, shred the meat, have it with fresh white corn tortillas as tacos. Because, yeah, the market has a whole floor-to-ceiling display of various yams and tubers, which are labor- and time-intensive to prepare. Or mofongo, which is good but I got sick of it in five days.

I might also go to the grocery store and pick up some "Gasolinera", which is basically alcoholic Capri Sun. The pouches even come with their own straw!
posted by wnissen at 8:42 AM on March 8, 2017

Gallo Pinto

I had this for breakfast almost everyday when I was in Puerto Rico. A very tasty version of beans and rice.
posted by cwarmy at 9:53 AM on March 8, 2017

Seconding Pernil (here's the recipe I use). I've made it quite a few times because it's absolutely delicious! Made it recently for a group and someone else brought arroz con gandules...fantastic combination. And it should be pretty easy to find a large enough roast that you can have leftovers.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:57 AM on March 8, 2017

Got to have mofongos! Respecting that you won't be deep-frying, maybe you can pick some up ready made to have with your pernil, as they come or formed into fritters.

And whole red snapper (el chillo).
posted by BibiRose at 12:54 PM on March 8, 2017