The Houng’s Recipes for

Puerto Rican Food#iloveyoubabes

Index:1-Pernil - Pork Butt/Back Leg Roasted2-Bistec Encebollado - Pounded Steak in Onion Sauce3-Chuletas - Pork Chops Fried4-Pollo Frito - Fried Chichen5-Bacalao - Salted Cod Fish6-Churrasco con Chimuchurri - Skirt Steak with Parsely Sauce7-Pollito - Chichen Breast Lorna Syle8-Guineitos en Escaveche - Green Bananas sort of Pickled9-Toritas de Maiz - Corn Pankakes

My Dearest Mr. & Mrs. Houng,

I thought long and hard about what would be an appropriate gift to you both, that was also meaningful and everlasting, like your love. Something that you could enjoy together, that only I could give you. This was suppose to be your engagement present but it took a life of it’s own. I Now, here you have it, a compilation of my family’s best recipes adapted just for you two. So that they can be enjoyed with Kimchi and Adobo alike, so that you can both cook them and hopefully, think of me when you do, no mat-ter where we all are. Also, I am hoping your future children develop a strong preference for Rican food. So when they are middle school brats and you need a break from them in the Summer Auntie Aura’s Caribbean Summer Camp will be where they go…

This recipes are for your eyes only, they have been collected through the vortex of my dad and my mom’s side of the family. Some of them are even, Aura, Beto and Leo exclusives, just for the Houngs. Because ultimately, what I am trying so ineloquently to say is #ILOVEYOUBABES

There are so many Puerto Rican recipes I wanted to share with you, but I limit myself to the ones that are most easy to cook and that Bo, already loves assuming Matt will love them too.Sorry Matt, you met me when I was sort of in a bad place and had no kitchen to do all this wonderful things Bo got to enjoy. That will change in 2014, I promise

PERNIL{Pork Butt (ham) - Auralis’ Recipe}

The Pork Butt (about 8-12 pounds)

If you can’t find thigh/butt area, try pork shoulder. Usually Italian grocery stores have it. If not try Puerto Rican or Hispanic places.

The Seasoning (adobo RUB) •Salt -the recipe is simple, you need about 1 teaspoon of salt per pound of meet.. It may seem like a lot, but that is how you get it flavorful.•Garlic – 1 clove of garlic per pound of meet. So if it’s 8 pounds of meat, it’s about 6-8 cloves of garlic. use your gut to determine whether or not it seems like a lot.•Oregano- dry oregano requires more than fresh oregano. The propor-tion is about 1 teaspoon per 2 pounds of meat.•Black PEPPER- ½ teaspoon per pound of meet•Fresh Lime juice – the juice of 1 or 2 if you don’t have limes is not a deal breaker.

Take the salt, garlic, oregano and black pepper and blend it in a food processor creating a paste. The paste you will use to season the meat.How to make it fall of the bone delicious?First of all, wash the pernil with lime juice, rub it befor you put seasoning on it, all over. After you rub the pernil with the lemon, take your adobo paste and rub it all over the pernil. Create small knife insicions into the skin, and deposit the rub inside for deeper flavor. Also, if you un-attach part has the skin from the meat and put seasoning in between it seasons deep down to the bone.Cook it At 250-300 degrees Farenheit in the oven for about 4-6 hours. Usually a 12-POUND pernil will cook in about 5 hours depending on the oven. You cook it covered with foil on a roasting pan, then about 1 hour before it’s done remove the foil and let it cook so the skin get’s crispy. Ideally, when it’s done right the bone comes right off.

BISTEC ENCEBOLLADO{Thin Steak Cooked in Onions - Beto’s Recipe}

You both, should know that this type of pounded steak is inexpensive and cooks quickly. It becomes chewy really easily and it’s not that meaty. The sauce is what makes it so good. It is also staple of any Puerto Rican kitch-en. My brother Beto, makes it the best.

The Steaks:Buy 1 packet of pounded steak or skirt steak at your local grocery store. If you want you can buy skirt steak and pounded yourself. Seasoned them with:• 2-4 Cloves of Garlic ( fresh garlic or powder)• 2 bay leaves or 1 teaspoon of bay leave powder• ½ teaspoon of dried oregano or a sprinkle of fresh oregano leaves.• Or just add store bought Adobo to the steaks – it has all this stuf

The Marinade:Marinade at least 8 hours before cooking them. It makes the meat soft and very deep in flavor.

You will need for the marinade:•¼ cup of Olive Oil - or about 6 steaks, they are so tin each person in my family eats 2•1/8 cup of White Vinegar - this part is important, vinegar is a big part of the flavor•4 sliced onions – it may seem like a lot but when you cook them they turn to nothing

To Cook Them Well:Take the whole container with the steaks and the marinade and dump it in a big sauté pan or cast iron skillet. Cook in low heat for about 15-20 minutes or until the onions are caramelized. Don’t let them dry, add water if necesary to keep the sauce making process. Eat them with rice, beans or white rice, seaweed and kimchi.

CHULETAS{Pork Chops - Aunt Sonia’s Recipe}

So for pork chops, it is important that you buy the ones that are not super thick at the meat shop. I would say they need to be about ½ thick at most. Since, you will be basically frying them. Get bone in chops, always.The Seasoning :You could just put store bought Adobo on them and call it a day, or you could seasoned them with: This receipe is per, pork chop so you can make 2 or 12!• Garlic – 1-2 cloves per chop• Salt – you know how much• Pepper – you know how much• Dry Oregano – ¼ teaspoon per chop• Dry Rosemary – sprinkled on• Bay Leaf Powder – Sprinkled on

To Cook them Rican style. You have to get ideally a cast iron skillet that has been curated already or a skillet period. Grease the pan with some canola oil and throw in the pork chops when it’s super hot. The skillet should have enough oil to fry an egg in it. Cover it, and let the pork chops cook with all their juices, including the lime juice from the seasoning (if any). Cook on medium heat, when the meat is almost cooked, uncover the pan, turn the heat on high and let the water dry, and the remaining oils to brown the meat. They end result is sort of fried, sort of steamed. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, you will know it when you see it. To Eat them – they go great with fried plantains (the salty kind) and if you add some lime juice when you are eating them even better.

POLLO FRITO {Fried Chicken - Grandma Pita’s Recipe}

My grandma Pita, my dad’s mom is the queen of fried chicken. She use to make it for my dad, and it is the first thing Beto learned to eat by himself. It’s not as time consuming as American fried chicken and it is pretty good.

Puerto Rican fried chicken is not breaded and it is not deep-fried. The ado-bo seasoning that you marinade the chicken in for at least 24 hours is what makes it so flavorful. It’s not rocket science and, there may be better ver-sions of fried chicken in other countries. However, my nana’s fried chick-en stands against any southern delicacy one might fancy. It’s true, I swear!

The Chicken

No white meat for this dish, it is best if you use a package of about 6 chicken legs, 6 wings and 6 thighs. Of course with the skin on.

The Adobo:

For this one you can use regular adobo and call it a day if you are in a hurry. But what my grandma does is this:

Season the Chicken with Adobo (store bought, or salt, peper, garlic, onion, bay leaf, thyme, powder combo, heavy on the garlic)Add fresh garlic to it as well, about 3 -4 cloves, smashed and rubbed on the meatPut the chicken in a bowl and add olive oil and white or balsamic vinegar. Let it sit in the fridge for 1 day. If you want to also throw some Kimchi to that Mari-nade, I bet is delicious.

Take a cast iron pan or a skillet and put some corn oil in it. I know Canola oil is the healthiest but my nana used either lard or corn oil. Lard may be to extreme, so go with the corn oil. Like any fried dish, when the oil is super hot, put the chicken pieces in, cook until brown. Eat while it’s still hot, but don’t burn your-self.

BACALAO{Salted Cod Fish - Aunt Luisa’s Recipe}

Bo, you had this at my mom’s in PR. It’s the salted cod fish dish. This one it’s a bit more time consuming than the steak and the pork chops. Although I am sure you and Matt will find a way to streamline the process. Fill me in when you do.

The Cod:

You can get about 1 pound of salted Cod Fish or Pollock at the grocery store. They have it in the Hispanic section but Whole-foods and some other ones have fancy versions of it as well. The Portuguese and the Spaniards all love their Bacalao…

There are various methods of doing this. De-salting it is tricky, you want to take excess salt away but you don’t want to take it all away. Striking the right balance may take more than one try. Just, remember, you can always add more salt to something but eating a salty meal it’s unsettling.

To Desalt the Fish:

The Sauce:

This recipe is for 1 pound/bag or salted cod or Pollock. You cook the de-salted fish, at the same time with all of the following ingredients.

•4-5 yellow onions•4-5 garlic cloves•½ yar of alcaparrado Goya. It has pitted stuffed with red peppers ol-ives, capers and white vinegar•Olive Oil – a lot, it’s the base of the sauce•1 tablespoon of tomato sauce ( the Goya or Spanish kind) it comes cooked with garlic and onions already. If you can’t find that, about ½ a tablespoon of tomato paste will do.•1 Medium Italian Red Peppers •1 Yellow Pepper•2 Cubanelle Peppers (those are the bright green ones that are sort of longish in shape) If you can’t find them skip it, but don’t add the big dark green ones people put in salads. •½ a bunch of cilantro, finely chopped. Yes Bo, I know you “hate” cilan-tro but trust me on this one, it’s delicious and you won’t taste it at the end.•More Vinegar for the sauce- use your intuition on this one•Salt and Pepper to taste – in case you de-salted the fish too much. It can happen.•Kimchi - I have never done this, but I bet some kimchi added to this so it cooks in it,

Basically you do all your prepping and then cut all this stuff with the fish until the onions caramelized and everthing looks like a nice amalagamated stew concoction.

1.Wash the fish under the sink and remove big chungs of salt. Or, leave the fish in water over night, this will remove the big chunks of salt.2.Boil the fish for about 30 minutes to remove even more salt, drain it.3.Wash the boil fish again fresh lemon juice. Hopefully by this step you are done, de-salting

Churrasco con Chimichurri{Skirt Steak with Parseley Sauce - Leo’s Recipe}

The Seasoning

According to Leo the most important part of this is the state of garlic, meaning it has to be mashed garlic, or minced into a mash.

For 4 skirt steaks you will need:

•1-2 mashed fresh garlic clove per steak•1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce or balsamic vinegar•Salt and Pepper to taste•Some Olive oil

Season the steaks the night before and leave marinating overnight.

For The Chimichurri Sauce:

Combine all ingredients in a jar and let the sauce sit overnight too. This sauce is a great dipping sauce and great for salad dressings. For a twist add some Sriracha or red pepper flakes and reduce the garlic amount. This sauce, you pour over your cooked steaks.

This is the sauce Argentineans put on all their steaks, it’s like their kimchi. Puerto Ricans have adopted it, because it is just so good.

You will need:•1 bunch of finely minced curly parsley, you can chop it in the food processor •1cup of Olive oil•½ cup of white vinegar•3 garlic cloves mashed •1-2 tablespoons of butter, melted•Salt and Pepper to taste

To Cook the Steaks:

Cast iron skillet with butter, if they dry adds more butter. However, keep in mind you are not cooking them in a sauce or frying them in butter. Use just the right proportion of butter so they don’t burn and dry but still brown. Cook them until medium or more bloody if you like. Skirt steak gets chewy easily. I know you got this Matt! Ps- these are also good in the grill.

Pechuga de Pollo en Salsa Criolla {Chichen Breast - Lorna’s Recipe}

Chicken breast can be so boring. Lorna actually found a way to make it delicious and very very flavorful. This one is pretty healthy too, just in case you guys get tired of fried pork chops… Uhm NEVER! But seriously this chicken is the shit.This recipe is for 4 chicken breasts, boneless, no skin.

The Adobo Seasoning

First, add apple cider vinegar and dry white Spanish cooking wine, the Goya kind is fine, about a ¼ cup of each for 4 breasts. Add it all in a bowl where each breast is flat and has space. That makes the meat soft, very soft. Tenderize the breasts with that first.

Leave it marinating in a container for about 20 min. If you want to add 1 sliced onion to the entire thing before so it sits in the mar-inade with the chicken, go ahead that makes the onions get soft.

Once they are seasoned throw them in the pan with pam or a little bit of canola oil. Add 1 sliced green Italian pepper and 1 sliced onion. Cook until chicken is done and onions and peppers are caramelized. Don’t let the chicken dry, add more water if necessary. Eat them with white rice and kimchi or seaweed. These are also good in salads or with mashed potatoes.

Guineitos en Escaveche{Green Bananas Sort of Pickled - an Auralís Original}

You can make this days in advance, and you should let the marinade do it’s thing for at least 14 hours before serving. You wouls serve this cold.

Ingredients5 bags of green bananas (it sounds like a lot, but there was nothing left that day…) boiled and cut into 1/2 slices2 bags of yellow onions peeled and sliced1 medium jar of olives pitted and stuffed with minced pimentos1 handful of black pepper corns6 dry bay leaves2 whole heads of garlic sliced1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil ( you can always add more olive oil to taste, I don’t like my guineos too oily)1/4 cup of canola oil1/4 cup of white vinegar

First and foremost you need to cut the banana ends and slit the skin on one side but don’t peel them. Boil them in a big pot with plenty of water, some salt and oil. They will take about 30 mins to boil depending on the pot and the stove. Stick a fork in the banana to see if they are soft, you do not want to over cook them because they will become a mushy disaster. Be careful. Once they are cooked, the skin will turn brown. This is ok. While the bananas are boiling, make the escabeche. You do that by putting 1/2 the oil into a big pan with all the onions , the pepper corns and the bay leaves. Let the onions sweat until they become soft but not too soft, add the whole jar of olives with water and everything. Let that cook together until the onions are soft. Now, take the bananas off the water, peel them and slice them. Mix the bananas and the escabeche in a big bowl, cover and let it cool. Once cooled, put in the refrigerator overnight and.. you are done! Guineitos en es-cabeche are taste better the longer they sit in the fridge, so the bananas can really soak in the escabeche.

Tortitas de Maíz{Corn Pankakes - Bo’s favorite - Grandma Aurora’s Recipe}

You will need:

1 cup of corn flower 1 cup of wheat flower¼ cup of sugar1 teaspoon of saltboiling water.

Mix all dry ingredients first, then slowly and while stirring the bowl add the boiling water. Add enough water until you get a paste. Knead as it where dough and form into little balls. You form the pancakes and fry them in canola or coin oil, until they are golden brown and cooked on the inside. You are done!