Tostones with Garlic Dip

When I went to Puerto Rico back in 2001 for the first time by visiting the family and explore around too.

I fell in love with Puerto Rican foods especially with tostones and sweet soft plantain (forgot what it was called). I alway wanted to learn how to make this but never had the chance to do it. Later, I moved to Virginia Beach from Colorado and it has a couple of Puerto Rico restaurants especially one place that happens to be in the "bad" area neighborhood but those puerto rican foods was so DELISH. They did served those tostones with garlic dip. It was so heaven for me!

Finally, I had learned how to make those tostones by frying those plantains and smashed it by using the bottom of the plastic or glass cup. Later my best friend bought me a wooden tostonera that she found it while she was in Puerto Rico visiting her family over there.

I discovered by experiment myself with the garlic by using minced garlic mixed up with olive oil and little bit of salt just exactly the restaurant back in Virginia Beach that I usually go there.

You may find the plantains nearby the banana area or at the international food market. You may want to find plantains that are a little bit firm to use. If it's being ripe already, it would be great for sweet plantains. You don't want to use if it's green because it's not ready yet. Yellow with little bit of black would be great for tostones while completely dark like brown and some blackish that would be very ripe since it's a starchy which it considers as a vegetable that produces some "sugary" that would be good for dessert like sweet ones.

To peel the plantains by cut each ends and make a slit down which it would make the peeling more easier.

You want to cut into about 1-2 inch (es) diagonally of each plantain. Heat the pan with some of vegetable or canola oil. You can use a wooden cooking tool to "test" if the oil is ready or not by insert the end of the wooden cooking tool into the oil. You will know when it's ready by seeing it bubbly or sizzling.

Put those sliced plantains and cook on each sides until you see a little bit of golden then flip it over. Put those it on the paper towel plate to dry it up then smash it with tostonera or bottom of plastic or glass cup. You can sprinkle a little bit of salt if you like to.

Garlic dip:

Some of olive oil

4 to 6 minced fresh garlic

A little bit of Salt

Mix it it up into a serving bowl along with those tostones.

Enjoy it!

Potato Apple Latkes

Since I bought the 22 lbs of champagne apples from Dixon Apple Farm on last month.

I wanted to created some dishes related with the apples. First thing it came up in my mind by saying " why not to make something with potato and apple but what kind?". Later, it came up in my mind something related with the latkes.

Mostly people make the latkes by using the potatoes only or mixed with shredded vegetables like zucchini or carrot.

I thought of grating the apples to mix the potato to make it more sweeter and it does.

2 potatoes, grated or a bag of shredded potato

2 apples, grated

1 egg

Salt and Pepper

Some of flour~ I would say about few tablespoons

Mix it altogether. For the flour part, I usually use few tablespoons of the flour like 2 or 3 by using my judgement by feeling the texture by seeing how it stick together. If you don't see anything that stick up then add a little bit of flour.

Heat the pan with some of vegetable or canola oil. Drop a little bit of the latke mixture by seeing if the oil is ready for frying.

Dollop the mixture into the pan and spread it out a little bit to make it look as latkes. Frying on each side like 5 mins or so before flip over AND you want to make sure that inside is completely cooked too.

Enjoy serving it with sour cream or apple sauce as your choice :)

Green Chile Stew

When the chiles are "in" for the season, I always love the scent of the roasting of the green and red. New Mexico is famous for that by asking "Red or Green" when ordering the mexican dishes at the restaurant.

Chiles are fat free, low on calories, almost no cholesterol and has lots of fiber which it's great benefits to have it on your dishes.

Green Chile help build up the immune defense system because it loaded up with lots of Vitamin C~ MORE double than an orange. For those red chiles, it's loaded with Vitamin A too.

Even those ancient people like Mayans had used the chiles for their "medicines".

I tend to order or made the green chile stew every time when I have a cold- great medicine for me.

That day when I brought a big bag of roasted green chiles to load up into individual sandwich bags into the freezer. I said myself, why don't I make those green chile stew with pork. It was cooking at same time I was busy to finish it up. It was so delicious even my eldest daughter had some of it too.

It's really simple and easy to make. If you don't have those fresh roasted green chiles then get the can of hatch peeled green chile (mild or medium as your own choice).

Ingredients:

1 pound of cubed pork (boneless ribs or loin)

1/2 onion (white or yellow), finely chopped

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

3/4 tsp garlic powder

7 or 8 Roasted Green Chiles, finely chopped or 15 oz can Hatch Peeled Green Chile (you can even add more than 1 can itself)

1 15 oz can crushed tomatoes

Cook the pork and onion with a little bit of olive oil to cook until the pork is about done and the onion becomes transparent. Then add rest of the ingredients except the crushed tomatoes to heat it throughly. Add the crushed tomatoes and simmer for at least 1 hour.

If the stew is becoming thick, you can add some bit of the water to reduce it.