Mangú con los tres golpes

As tradition built it

Mangú con los tres golpes

Serves 3 to 4 . 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 4 green plantains
• enough to cover, with about 1 to 1½ tsp salt added salted water
• to taste butter
• small additions reserved plantain cooking water
• 2 medium onions red onion, cut into rings
• a few dashes, enough to coat the onion vinegar
• a pinch, for the pickled onion, to taste salt
• a few slices, one of the tres golpes Dominican salami
• a few slices, one of the tres golpes queso de freír
• 1 to 2 per serving, fried eggs

Method

1. Boil the green plantains in salted water until very tender, about 15 minutes.
2. Mash immediately while hot with a majador or in a pilón, working to a smooth, lump-free purée, incorporating butter and small additions of the reserved plantain cooking water gradually to a soft, spreadable consistency.
3. Finish with a last splash of cold water poured over the top just before serving, a grandmother's trick recorded in Dominican press, to loosen it further.
4. Cut red onion into rings and briefly pickle in vinegar and salt for around 15 minutes, then lightly fry until the vinegar cooks off, and sit it on top.
5. For the full breakfast, los tres golpes, "the three hits," add fried Dominican salami, fried queso de freír, a semi-hard cheese chosen specifically because it holds together under heat rather than melting, and fried eggs.

Notes

More than one Dominican source insists plainly that without the pickled onion it is not really mangú.

What a modern chef changes

A savoury base, a sharper pickle, a repeatable egg

Method

1. Confit the plantain in achiote-infused fat sous vide before boiling it briefly to finish, for a rounder, more savoury base flavour running underneath the mash rather than plain water alone.
2. Dehydrate the pickled red onion after its vinegar bath rather than frying it, then rehydrate it in a little of the plantain's own cooking liquid just before serving, keeping its bite sharp and distinct against the softness of the mash rather than softening it further in oil.
3. Poach the eggs sous vide to a fixed, repeatable doneness, then finish the outside briefly and hard in butter, a controlled version of tres golpes' own fried egg that a home stove cannot reliably repeat plate to plate.