Mofongo

Mofongo is a Puerto Rican dish built on green plantains, fried and mashed in a wooden pilón with garlic, salt, cooking fat and cracklings. It is one of the island's most recognizable culinary symbols and a distinctive relative of the mashed plantain dishes found across the Caribbean.

History

Its roots lie in fufu, a dish of starchy roots and vegetables boiled and mashed, which Africans brought to the Spanish colonies of the New World, with links to the Gulf of Guinea and the Congo region. In the Caribbean this way of eating mixed with the Taíno tradition of mashing root vegetables and with European ingredients such as pork, garlic and olive oil.

The earliest known written recipe appears in Puerto Rico's first cookbook, El Cocinero Puerto-Riqueño o Formulario, published in 1859, under the name mofongo criollo. In that version the plantains were boiled with veal and chicken, mashed with garlic, oregano, ají dulce and bacon, and eaten with the broth. The fried version, made with green or half-ripe plantains, became widespread in the twentieth century.

Dominicans who fled the Trujillo dictatorship took the dish to Puerto Rico and New York, and after his death many returned home and made it popular there.

Culture

Mofongo is traditionally served with fried meat and chicken broth, and its dense ball soaks up the juices of whatever accompanies it. Versions include vegetables, chicken, shrimp, beef or octopus, and mofongo relleno, a stuffed variation, became popular in restaurants along the coast. Cassava, breadfruit and ripe plantain versions also exist, and the dish remains a core part of Puerto Rican identity both at home and in the diaspora.