The Andes · Volume 46, The Two Milks, the Azotea and the Covered Pot
Bolón de verde
Manabí and Guayaquil, at breakfast
Illustration
- Researched
- Researched from 67 sources in the brief
A fist sized ball of green plantain, roasted or boiled, mashed hot with lard and salt, mixed with chicharrón or cheese or both, and fried or browned on a grill: breakfast on the Ecuadorian coast. Historians in El Universo agree it began on the coast as a montubio food and reached Guayaquil as food of the people; the Cuban scholar Fernando Ortiz, cited there, reads it as African, kin to Cuba's fufú de plátano. Byron Zavala and Gladys Franco of the Café de Byron in Sauces 2, north Guayaquil, cook the plantain al dente and finish the bolón on a grill, and say their recipe is more than thirty five years old; their house tradition puts the best bolón in Jipijapa, which is their boast. The quantities are El Universo's and the salt is unmeasured.
As tradition built it
Makes 6.
Ingredients
- 5 green plantains
- 225g (half lb) chicharrón, crumbled
- 225g (half lb) queso criollo, a fresh cheese, crumbled
- 2 tbsp lard
- to taste salt
- as needed lard, for frying
- to serve black coffee
- to serve sal prieta
Method
- Roast or boil the plantains until tender.
- Mash them hot with the lard and salt, in a mortar or by hand, until they hold together.
- Mix in the chicharrón, the queso criollo, or both.
- Form fist sized balls and fry them in lard, or brown them on a grill, until the outside is crisp.
- Eat with coffee, and with sal prieta.
What a modern chef changes
The ball crisp outside and soft in
Rung 5
Method
- Boil the plantains to al dente, as Café de Byron does, and mash while they are too hot to hold; cold plantain will not bind.
- Weigh the balls at 150 grams so they cook alike.
- Fry in lard at 180 degrees for 3 minutes, then rest them 2 minutes on a rack and finish a minute on a hot grill.
- A fried egg on top and a spoon of suero beside, which Guayaquil's counters do.