First time cooking Mofongo!!!!!

So Mofongo is a Dominican dish which in its most basic form only requires a few simple and easy to find ingredients: green plantains, salt, vegetable or olive oil, and garlic. Dominicans typically also use some sort of pork fat for taste such as bacon or -wait for it - crushed pork rinds as my Mother-in-law uses (it's good I promise).

I made it for the first time today and it was gooooooooooood!!

Here is the final product:

Here are the ingredients for the Mofongo:

You basically cut the plantain in 3/4" slices (just like you would cut a banana for a child), heat up about 1" of the oil in a pan, fry the plantains for about 4-6 minutes (turn half way through) and make sure you don't over cook them in this step. You don't want them to be too firm.When they are done you should remove them from the oil and drain in a bowl lined with paper towels.

You then use a mortar and pestle (pilon) or you can use a food processor (just don't over process) and crush about 1/2 of a small clove of garlic, then smash either the cooked bacon or 1-2 pieces of pork rinds, then take 5-6 of the plantain pieces and smash it as well (don't do this separately, you should smash all of this together in the same mortar and pestle). You should add small amounts of olive oil as you smash so that it doesn't get too dry. Add salt to taste and continue to smash. KEEP TASTING! Then you form the mixture into 3" balls. If it falls apart easily then it probably needs a little more olive oil. Some people add another step which is to then put the ball back into the pan just to lightly sear the outside. I did that today and DH said he like that.

You would eat this with a meat on the side and the sauce from the meat drizzled over the Mofongo. My favorite thing to have with it is shrimp so that's how I made it today.

I used medium shrimp that are raw. Season with whatever you want -I usually use Old Bay Seasoning. In a pan add a small amount of oil. Add thinly sliced red onions and green peppers. Cook this for a few minutes to soften up the onions and peppers. Add a dollop of butter and a small amount of garlic and cook like this for about 1 minute. Then add cream to the mixture (today I also added a little bit of tomato sauce). Lastly, add the shrimp to the pan, stir thoroughly and cover. Cook like this for about 10 minutes or so. Uncover for the last 2-3 minutes to allow the butter and milk/cream to thicken. Stir once again at the end. Make sure there is some sauce left in the pan. If it has dried out, add more butter and cream and heat for a couple more minutes. You definitely want some sauce.

Once the Mofongo and the shrimp are done. You can serve separately and let your guests combine it on their plates or just put the Mofongo balls on a serving dish, with the back of a spoon press down on the top of each ball to make an indentation (it's ok if they break open a little because the sauce will penetrate much better anyway), and then pour your shrimp and sauce mixture over the mofongo and let your guests grab from the serving dish.

Sorry for the crappy quality pics (I took these with my Nintendo DSi)

Enjoy!