Mofongo

Such a fun word to say. When you get to reading places like AnotherPintPlease you start to wonder about different possibilities and become a little more adventurous on the recipes. Adventurous, sometimes to the groans of my daughters.

So, the story goes, we had some ripe plantains. Isn't that how every good story starts? Yeah, not really I guess.

I hit up epicurious.com, type plantain in the search function and the first item that comes up is Mofongo. With a name like that, I’m in. Now it is a Puerto Rican dish, and meant to be made with not ripe plantains, when they are more like potatoes. Eh, this one called for bacon and garlic, which in my thinking mixed the savory and sweet, which would lead to a winner. But, I don’t have any bacon. Fortunately, my wife is out in the big bad world with a cell phone. Call her up and the only words that make it out of my mouth are “YouNeedToStopAtTraderJoe’sAndPickUpBacon” What? she says. So again I repeat it, trying to slow down, but not quite able to. So, since she loves me so much, she makes a special trip (on the way home). Now we’re off to the races. Grill is going, bacon is cooking.

Now, ultimately, these are banana balls. But, we are in the process of making a staple from another culture. So, I chop the garlic, start the plantains frying, and eventually make up the patties and continue their cooking.

Mash up the partially cooked plantains, mix with the garlic, bacon and a little of the bacon drippings, and serve. Pow.