Plátano Macho Relleno de Queso Costeño

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy pot for boiling the plantains
• •Cast iron comal for toasting the chile costeño and garlic
• •Volcanic stone molcajete for the salsa
• •Potato masher or sturdy wooden spoon for the plantain
• •Deep, heavy skillet or clay cazuela for frying
• •Slotted spoon or spider and a wire rack for draining

Instructions

1. 1

   Boil the plantains

   Choose plátano macho with skins gone black and soft to the squeeze. Green plantain is a different ingredient and a different dish. Cut the ends off each one, run a knife down the ridge of the skin, and peel. Cut into thick chunks. Drop them into a pot of salted water and boil over medium heat until a fork slides through with no resistance, fifteen to twenty minutes. Drain them well and let them steam off in the colander. Wet dough will not hold in the fat.

   Ripe plantain skin is sticky and clings to the flesh. Oil your hands or peel the chunks under cool running water and the skin comes away clean.
2. 2

   Make the salsa de chile costeño

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile costeño a few seconds per side until they color and turn fragrant. Watch them every second. Costeño is thin and sharp and it scorches in a blink, and scorched chile turns the salsa bitter with no way back. Toast the garlic in its skin on the same comal until it softens and spots brown, then peel it. Grind the chiles and garlic with the salt in a molcajete, loosening with the water a little at a time until you have a loose, rust-red salsa. It should be hot. That is the point of a salsa costeña.

   If the costeño runs too hot for your table, pull some of the seeds before toasting. Do not tame it to nothing. On this coast the salsa has teeth, and a roasted roma tomato ground in will round it without killing the heat.
3. 3

   Mash and bind the dough

   Mash the warm plantain in a bowl until completely smooth, no lumps. Warm mashes clean. Cold fights you. Work in salt to taste and the flour a little at a time, until the mash comes together into a soft, pliable dough that holds its shape when you press it. You want just enough flour to bind, not a heavy paste. The riper and wetter the plantain, the more flour it drinks, so add by feel, not by the spoon. Let it cool until you can handle it.

4. 4

   Form and stuff the croquettes

   Wet your hands. Take a portion of dough about the size of a small lime and flatten it into a disk in your palm. Lay a finger of queso costeño in the center. Fold the dough up and around the cheese, then roll it closed into a smooth torpedo, sealing every seam with your fingers. Any opening and the cheese will bleed out into the fat and you will have lost it. Set the formed croquettes on a plate. A short rest in the refrigerator, fifteen minutes, firms them up and helps them hold.

   The cheese has to be firm and salty so it softens without running. Queso costeño is built for this. A melting cheese like Oaxaca or mozzarella turns to liquid and escapes the seam. That is the wrong cheese for this dish.
5. 5

   Fry in manteca

   Heat the manteca de cerdo in a deep, heavy skillet or clay cazuela until a pinch of dough dropped in sizzles right away, about 350°F. Lower the croquettes in a few at a time, no crowding, or the fat drops and they soak instead of crisp. Fry, turning once, until the outside is deep golden brown and the plantain sugars have caramelized into a near-mahogany crust, three to four minutes a side. Lift them out and drain on a rack. La manteca es el sabor, and on this coast the frying is the African inheritance, not a detail you skip.

   For a plate that stays meatless all the way through, fry in aceite de coco. Coconut grows along this same coast, so it is the coast's own fat, not a substitution somebody invented in a city far from the sea.
6. 6

   Serve hot

   Serve the croquettes hot, while the cheese inside is still soft. Set them over or beside a spoonful of refried black beans, drizzle crema across the top, and put the salsa de chile costeño on the side. The sweet of the plantain, the salt of the cheese, the heat of the costeño, the cool of the crema. That is the whole plate of the Costa Chica in one bite. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Queso costeño belongs to the Costa Chica and is hard to find off the coast. Outside Mexico, a firm and very salty queso fresco or a young, still-moist cotija will hold its shape in the heat and give you the salt you need. That is a compromise, not an upgrade. Whatever you choose, it must be a cheese that softens without running. A melting cheese loses you the whole dish.
• •Buy the blackest plantains you can find, or buy them yellow a week ahead and let them ripen on the counter until the skins go dark and the fruit yields to a squeeze. Black skin means the starch has turned to sugar. A yellow plantain with a few spots is not ripe, and the croquette comes out starchy and flat. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.
• •The croquette itself has no meat, which is exactly why it became the meatless home plate of the coast. Fry it in manteca de cerdo for the traditional plate, or in coconut oil for a strict vegetarian or vegan one. For a fully vegan version, stuff the dough with refried black beans instead of cheese. That is not an invention. Plátano relleno de frijol is a real coastal dish that has fed families here for generations.

Advance Preparation

• •The plantain dough can be boiled and mashed several hours ahead. Keep it covered tight so it does not dry out, then form and fry close to serving.
• •The salsa de chile costeño keeps three to four days in the refrigerator and the flavor only settles and deepens.
• •You can shape and stuff the croquettes a few hours ahead and chill them, but fry them just before serving. They do not reheat well. The crust softens and the cheese stiffens, and you lose the contrast that makes the dish.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 270g)