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By Kitchen De Lujo 2 Comments
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Mofongo con Camaronesis a traditional Puerto Rican dish, that is easy to make, and is filled with deliciousness flavor!
What is Mofongo?
That round yellow ball that resemblessome sort of mashed potatoes is mashed fried plantains. Mofongo is a traditional food dish from Puerto Rico that has fried plantains as the star of the dish. Similar to tostones, the green plantains are fried then mashed in awooden pilón with garlic and oil.
The method of making this food dish dates back to Africa and was introduced to the Caribbean islands as a recipe called “fufu“. It originally was made by boiling starchy foods such as cassava and plantain, and then mashed into a dough. Cubans and Dominicans use this method intheir own dishes called “fufu de plátano” and “mangú“.
However, Puerto Ricans fry the starchy green plantain instead of boiling prior to mashing. This frying method and including pork cracklings are unique to Puerto Rico’s mofongo recipe. Different types of meat or seafood are usually packed inside or spread around the mofongo.
How To Make Shrimp Mofongo?
Making mofongo is similar to making tostones, the difference being that tostonesare fried once more after you flatten it with a tostonera. With mofongo, you use a pilón to mash those golden plantain round slices instead of flattening and frying twice. Heres our recipe showing you how tostones are made.
If there’s one thing you need to make authentic mofongo – it is apilón. What is apilón? It is a wooden mortar and pestle that is used throughout the Caribbean Islands to crush and grind various ingredients. I highly recommend everyone to purchase one for not only mofongo but for various other recipes that call for it. Here is a woodenpilón for sale on Amazon if you can’t find one at your nearest store.
Also, please grab a largepilón. I made a huge mistake in the past and ordered a VERY smallpilón that made it impossible to mash those fried plantains. Talk about a waste of time.😡
Mofongocon Camarones is best served immediately.
In this tasty mofongo with shrimp recipe, I personally cut back on the garlic use while mashing the fried plantains because of the shrimp sauce already including a decent amount. Speaking of shrimp sauce, you will LOVE this tomato-based sauce. Especially when you add some of our delicious sofrito into it. This can’t be an authentic Puerto Rican recipe without the sofrito. No exceptions! 🙂
It is also traditional to add chopped up chicharrónes into the mofongo, but it can be replaced with bacon if your not a fan or just can’t seem to findchicharrónes at your local store. However, this mofongo recipe can be a healthy vegan/vegetarian dish since fried plantain is still delicious by itself.
Mofongo con Camarones (Mashed Plantains with Shrimp)
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Caribbean, Puerto Rican
Keyword: caribbean food, plantain, puerto rican recipe, sofrito
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Resting Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes
Servings: 4 people
Mofongo con Camaronesis a traditional Puerto Rican dish, that is easy to make, and is filled with deliciousness flavor!
Ingredients
- 4 whole green plantains
- 1 pound medium shrimp peeled & deveined
- 10 pieces chicharrónes
- 2 tbsp sofrito
- 2 tsp garlic minced
- 1/3 cup onion chopped
- 8 oz tomato sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- vegetable oil for frying
- cilantro for garnish
- salt for taste
Instructions
Begin by heating a medium frying pan of three teaspoons of oil. Add the sofrito, garlic, and onion into the pan over high heat. Sauté and stir the ingredientsfor three to five minutes.
Next, lower the heat to simmer and pour the tomato sauce into the frying pan. Also, stir in the medium shrimp and water. Set aside and stir occasionally. Once shrimp are pink, place heat to lowest setting.
Heat frying oil in a separatelarge pan. Place piece by piece of the chicharrónes and deep fry them. Set aside over a wire rack or bowl with a paper towel to cool and soak remaining oil.
Peel and chop the green plantains into 1-inch slices. Then, fry the green plantain slices until golden color. Set aside over wire rack. Place three to five fried plantain slices insidepilón while adding chopped upchicharrónes and salt. Mash the ingredientstogether. You may add a little bit of the cooked shrimp liquid while mashing if the mofongo is too dry. However, make sure mofongo is dry enough to shape.
Finally, continue until desired mofongo serving amount insidepilón. While serving, shape mofongo into a ball and place onto the plate and flatten the top. Place shrimp over mofongo and pour liquid over the shrimp. Garnish with cilantro and salt for taste.
Recipe Notes
- Chicharrónes are optional or can be replaced by bacon or ham.
- Minced garlic is usually mashed in the mofongo with chicharrónes, but since the shrimp sauce is very garlicky; I prefer no additional garlic.
- If shrimp sauce is too thick for preference, you may add a little bit of water.
- It is best served while mofongo is still hot.
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Ann Marie saysYum.
I made this without the pork rinds today .added more water to make more shrimp sauce.as I was mashingthe plantains I added the shrimp salsa and made sure not to make the masa to wet.
In the end I tasted the masa to make sure it was not dry tasting.when they had a yummy consistency I made a giant ball and used the pilon head to make a deep hole (not all the way through) and filled hole with the shrimp
Before you serve shrimp sauce in the hole make sure to cook down the sauce. (I remove shrimp for this process so they dont overcook then add them back when serving)
If you like fresh cilantro chop some up and sprinkle on top.if it’s not your fancy just serve and enjoy….Thank you for the recipe. My x was dying for this and it came out perfecto
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- Kitchen De Lujo says
No problem, great to hear you guys enjoyed the recipe!
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