I decided to post this really traditional Dominican recipe, good for breakfast, lunch or dinner here, and this is Bayo's favorite meal of all time, he would choose this over anything in the world!
It is called Mangu con Queso Frito, there is really no translation for this but you could say is mashed plantain and fried "fresh" cheese.
Legend says the name of mangu (mashed plantain) comes because one day the dish was serve to an american and he said "Man, Good!!" but this could be just that a big old legend.
The fried cheese is not just any cheese is a special kind of fresh one used just to fry it, I guess you could substitute for any other cheese that will allow to fry without melting, you could find queso fresco under the latin foods in the supermarkets.
This dish MOST be serve with onions, wish I will also tell you how to fix them to have the complete deal :)
Lets start with the Mangu, for a 2 person serving get:
-4 green plantain
-2 tbs of butter
-salt
Boil the plantain in water with salt for about 20 minutes, reserve 1/4 cup of the water were the plantain were boiled and mash them with that water and the butter. It should be really soft like a mashed potato.
For the onions, cut them round and fry them a little with olive oil,when they are soft add some vinegar, balsamic one is great and stir for about one minute, serve them on top of the Mangu.
And for the cheese, cut it in squares of half an inch and cover them with cornstarch and fry them on both sides until golden.
You could serve the Mangu with regular melted cheese or with anything else that you would use to serve mash potatoes.
Enjoy!!!
