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The 'cuisine of Puerto Rico' has its colorful roots in the cuisines of Spain. Puerto Rican cuisine, however, has almost nothing in common with Mexican cuisine, which surprises many first-time visitors from the United States or Europe. The cuisine also differs from other Latin countries and the food traditions of the United States.

Contents

History

Taino influences

Spanish influences

African influences

United States influences

Basic Ingredients

Grains and Legumes

Starchy tropical tubers

Vegetables

Meats and Poultry

Seafood and shellfish

Fruits

Starchy Fruits

Spices and Seasonings

Puerto Rican Dishes

Staples

Holiday favorites

Favorites in North American cities

See also

External links

History

Spain, Africa, Central America, South America, and the United States all have had an impact on how food is prepared in Puerto Rico. Some dishes even show traces of the original inhabitants of the Island, the Taíno Indians.

Taino influences

From the Taíno people come many tropical roots and tubers like ''yautía'' (taro) and especially ''yuca'' (yucca), from which thin cracker-like casabe "bread" was made. ''Ajíes'' (a small hot pepper), ''recao/culantro'' (spiny leaf), ''achiote'' (annatto), peanuts, guavas, pineapples, ''mameyes'', ''jicacos'' (cocoplum), ''quenepas'' (mamincillo), ''lerenes'' (Guinea arrowroot), ''calabazas'' (tropical pumpkins), and ''guanabanas'' (soursops) are all Taíno foods. The Taínos also grew varieties of beans and some ''maíz'' (corn/maize), but ''maíz'' was not as dominant in their cooking as it was for the peoples living on the mainland of Mesoamerica. That was wise, because there is not much left to eat in a cornfield after a hurricane. A field of ''conucos'' (hills of ''yuca'' grown together) still provides plenty of calories safeguarded underground after the tempest has past.

Spanish influences

As you might expect, the Spanish influence in Puerto Rican cuisine is strong. Wheat bread, rice, garbanzos, olives, pimento peppers, onions, garlic, cilantro, oregano, basil, sugarcane, oranges, grapefruits, eggplants, ham, lard, chicken, beef, cheese, vinegar, salted codfish... all these building blocks of Puerto Rican cooking come from Spain.

African influences

Coconuts, Coffee, okra, yams, sesame seeds, gandules (pigeon peas or Congo peas in English) sweet bananas, plantains, yams, malanga, etc. all come to Puerto Rico from Africa. If you took away the African elements you could not recognize the traditional cuisine of Puerto Rico. African cooks brought with them the preference for deep frying food which is still close to Puerto Rican hearts. Also the tradition of cooking complex stews and rice dishes in iron pots is thought to be originally African.

United States influences

The last century of association with the USA also impacts Puerto Rican cooking traditions and favorite foods, sometimes in surprising ways. The most significant has to do with how people fry food. The early Spaniards brought olive oil for cooking and frying, but importing it from Spain made it very expensive, and cooks on the Island shifted over to lard which could be produced locally. In the last 50-60 years, corn oil produced in the United States has taken the place of lard in the deep fryers that produce cuchifritos and alcapurrias in home kitchens and at roadside stands.
Before 1898, there were no "salchichas" (canned vienna sausages) available on store shelves to be bought; salchichas are scrambled with eggs and cooked in other dishes. Always popular galletas de soda (soda crackers in tins) are an American product of the 19th/early 20th century that reproduced the crunchy texture of the earlier casabe "bread" and could be kept crunchy (in the tins) in high tropical humidity. The beans and rice that 4 million Puerto Ricans eat every day are grown, not on the limited crop fields found on the Island today, but in the vast fields of Texas and California.
From the tropical American mainland also come parcha (passionfruit), cocoa, papaya, tomatoes, and avocados. Breadfruit was first imported into the British Caribbean colonies from the South Pacific as cheap slave food in the late 18th century. After spreading throughout the Antilles, "panapén" has also become an indispensable part of the Puerto Rican repertoire, both in puddings and crunchy, deep-fried tostones.

Basic Ingredients

Grains and Legumes

★ Rice

★ Beans…generally called Granos in the grocery store

★ Gandules…Congo peas

★ Habichuelas rosadas…pink beans

Starchy tropical tubers

★ Yautía…taro

★ Yuca…cassava, tapioca

★ Batata…sweet potato

★ Boniato…sort of another kind of sweet potato

★ Ñame (Yam)

★ Malanga

Vegetables

★ Eggplant…berenjena

★ West Indian pumpkin…calabaza (available all year long)

★ Apios…this is NOT celery

★ Chayotes

★ Lerenes…sweet corn root (Calathea allouia)

Meats and Poultry

In Puerto Rican cooking, no part of the animal goes to waste. An old saying that "the only part of a pig that can't be used is the squeal."

★ Pork - This is the favorite meat of Puerto Rico

★ Ham

★ Steak

★ Chicken

★ Turkey

★ Guinea hen – Not easy to find in the cities, but still considered a tasty traditional favorite in the countryside

★ Goat – Not as common now as 30-40 years ago

★ Rabbit - still found out in the country, once a favorite among Spaniards

★ Lamb – not part of traditional Island fare, possible in New York City

Seafood and shellfish

★ Jueyes…West Indian Great Land Crab

★ Bacalao…salt codfish

★ Pulpo…octopus

★ Carrucho…conch

★ Shrimp

★ Chapín

★ Oysters

Fruits

Fresh tropical fruit is important in the traditional daily diet in Puerto Rico, and fruit is available all year long from many small roadside vendors throughout the island:

★ Bananas

★ Papayas

★ Mangoes

★ Guineos niños…small finger-size sweet bananas)

★ Oranges

★ Grapefruits

★ Key limes

★ Guavas…guayaba

★ Tamarind

★ Parcha…passion fruit

★ Mameyes (summer only)

★ Guanabanas

★ Quenepas (in the summer season only)

Starchy Fruits

★ Plantains

★ Breadfruit ''(pana)''

Spices and Seasonings

★ Adobo…a dry salt-and-pepper marinade mix

★ Alcaparrado…a mix of green olives, pimentos, and capers

★ Achiote or Bija…annatto (Bixa orellana)

★ Recao/Culantro…green spiny leaf

★ Garlic

★ Onions

★ Cooking sweet peppers (Capsicum chinense "Aji Dulce" [1] [2])

★ Sofrito…A mixture of sweet peppers, onions, recao/culantro, garlic, olive oil, and other spices which is blended and used to season many dishes when cooking

★ Oregano

★ Canela…cinnamon

★ Nuez moscada…nutmeg

★ Sazón…a seasoning mix consisting of a blend of different spices, often used with sofrito to season when cooking

Puerto Rican Dishes

Puerto Rican dishes are well seasoned with combinations of flavorful spices although the cooking is not spicy hot as one might find in Mexico, India, or parts of China. The base of many Puerto Rican main dishes involves something called ''sofrito'', similar to the ''mirepoix'' of French cooking, or the ''"trinity"'' of Creole cooking. A proper sofrito is a sauté of chopped garlic, onions, culantro/recao (not cilantro, but a similar flavored green leaf), a sweet pepper like Italian cooking peppers, tomatoes, and small chunks of fatback bacon.

Staples

★ 'Arroz Con Gandules' - Puerto Rico's national dish is called ''Arroz con Gandules'' which is a rice-and-pigeon-pea dish nicely seasoned with sofrito and smoked ham.

★ 'Arroz y Habichuelas' - The combination of ''arroz y habichuelas'' (beans and rice) are so common that the phrase beans-and-rice means essentially the same as "our daily bread" means in northern countries. Dried pink beans are slowly stewed with chunks of calabaza (tropical pumpkin) flavored with the sofrito base, and then ladled over a mound of rice. Sticky medium-grained rice is more popular in Puerto Rico than long grain rice or Uncle Ben's parboiled.

★ 'Plaintains' - Almost as popular as arroz y habichuelas are plátanos (plantains, or cooking bananas). They are daily fare, whether cooked green, deep-fried and mashed as tostones, or boiled and seasoned with escabeche. They can be let to mature until they are spotted outside and golden inside, and then deep-fried as "maduros" or "amarillos." Sometimes they are baked instead of deep-fried.

★ 'Empanadillas de carne/mariscos/queso' - Other tasty foods include ''empanadillas''; meat, seafood, or cheese turnovers usually called "empanadas" in other Spanish-speaking countries. On the eastern side of the island empanadillas are known as "pastelillos", although "pastelillo" also refers to the pastry turnover.

★ 'Mofongo' - Mofongo is a popular Afro-Boricua dish, made from fried green plantains seasoned with garlic, olive oil and pork cracklings, then mashed. Mofongo is usually served with a fried meat and a fish broth soup.

★ 'Seafood' -On certain coastal towns of the island (such as Luquillo, Fajardo, and Cabo Rojo), seafood is quite popular, although much of the seafood is imported. Only a tiny number of fishermen ply the waters off Puerto Rico today, and their catch never leaves their seacoast towns. The fact that the island sits next to the deepest part of the Atlantic means there is no wide continental shelf to foster a rich offshore fishery; neither are there any large rivers to dump extra nutrients into the sea that could build up a fish population. Popular seafood include "bacalao" (codfish), chapín (tropical fish), pulpo (octopus, not always canned), carrucho (conch), shrimp, lobster (most commonly caught in the surrounding waters), and jueyes (crabs).

★ 'Alcapurrias' - This food consists of a seasoned meat or crab filling wrapped in a seasoned dough of mashed green bananas and taro root (yautía), which is then deep fried.

★ 'Arepas/Domplines' - These are fried rounds of flour-based dough. Sometimes they can contain coconut (known as "arepas de coco"). They are sometimes stuffed with seafood.

★ 'Bacalaitos Fritos' - These are fritters made from a pancake-like batter containing codfish, flour, and seasoning.

★ 'Morcilla' - Basically a type of blood sausage.

Holiday favorites

★ 'Stuffed Turkey' - From November to January Puerto Ricans will enjoy holiday parties and large family dinners almost daily. Starting with the Thanksgiving turkey which is stuffed with a ground beef and/or pork mixture containing almonds, raisins, olives, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, garlic, etc. Instead of the thin slices seen in the North, a baked turkey in Puerto Rico is often cut into large blocks or chunks to be served on a plate Rice is a mandatory course in dishes such as "Arroz con Gandules" (rice with pigeon peas), "Arroz con Tocino" (rice with bacon), "Arroz Mamposteao", and the sweet dessert "Arroz con Dulce" (rice pudding).

★ 'Roasted Pork' - Pork is central to Puerto Rican holiday cooking, and a lechón (spit-roasted piglet) is king. Holiday feasts might include several pork dishes, such as ''pernil'' (a baked fresh ham shoulder seasoned in garlic and oregano),''morcillas'' (a black blood sausage), ''tripa'' (tripe), ''jamón con pina'' (ham and pineapple), ''gandinga'' (stewed pork innards) and "chuletas ahumadas" (smoked cutlets).

★ 'Pasteles' - For many Puerto Rican families, the quintessential holiday season dish is "''pasteles''" which English-speakers often literally translate to "cakes". Pasteles are not a sweet pastry or cake, but a soft dough-like mass wrapped in a banana / plantain leaf and boiled. In the center of the "dough" are choice pieces of chopped meat, chicken, raisins, spices, olives, and often a garbanzo bean. Puerto Rican pasteles are similar in shape, size, and cooking technique to Mexican tamales. The "dough" in a Mexican tamal is made from corn meal; the "dough" in a Puerto Rican pastel is made from either cooked plantains or starchy tropical roots. The wrapper in a Mexican tamal is a corn shuck; the wrapper in a Puerto Rican pastel is a banana leaf. The combination of spices is totally different, so if you are familiar with tamales, pasteles won't taste at all the same. The making of "''pasteles''" is a labor-intensive social activity. Many family members will get together for hours or days to make dozens to hundreds of "''pasteles''" to share with friends and loved ones. Pasteles from the Island are often shipped overseas packed in dry ice during the long Xmas season. They are received as a nostalgic, much treasured gift.

★ 'Sweets' - Sweets are common in Puerto Rican cuisine and during the holidays the most popular are deserts such as "''Arroz con Dulce''" (sweet rice pudding), "''Budín de Pan''" (bread pudding), "''Barriguitas de Vieja''" (deep-fried sweet pumpkin fritters), "''Tembleque''" (coconut pudding), "''Flan''" (egg custard), "''Bizcocho de Ron''" (rum cake), "''Mantecaditos''" ( manteca=lard; shortbread cookies), "''Polvorones''" ( pólvora = gunpowder, another crunchy cookie with a dusty sweet cinnamon exterior), "''Ajónjoli''" ( a toasted sesame seed bar bound together by honey), "''Mampostiales''"( mampostería = an early form of concrete, used in the forts of Old San Juan; a very thick, gooey candy bar of caramelized brown sugar and coconut chips, challenging to chew and with a strong almost molasses-like flavor), "''Dulce de Leche''" ( milk caramel pudding), "''Pastelillos de Guayaba''" (guava pastries), "''Besitos de Coco''" (coconut kisses), "''Tarta de Guayaba''" (guava tarts), and "''Tortitas de Calabaza''" (pumpkin tarts).

★ 'Coquito' - A popular Christmastime drink is "''Coquito''", an eggnog-like rum and coconut milk-based homemade beverage. The holiday season is also a time many piña coladas are prepared and enjoyed, which underscores the synthesis of tropical America (pineapples) and Africa (coconuts) seen in Puerto Rican cuisine.

Favorites in North American cities

★ 'Cuchifritos' - In New York, cuchifritos are quite popular.

★ 'El Jibarito (Plaintain Sandwich)' - In Chicago, ''El Jibarito'' is a popular dish. The word "Jíbaro" in Puerto Rico means a man from the countryside, especially a small landowner or humble farmer from far up in the mountains -- not a super sophisticated city guy. Jíbaro is a term strongly associated with preserving the traditional values and the culture of the Island. Typically served with Spanish rice, "Jibaritos" consist of your choice of meat along with mayo, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and onions-all sandwiched between a fried plantain, known as a ''canoa'' (canoe). A century ago, bread made from wheat (which would have to be imported) was expensive out in the mountain towns of the Cordilllera Central, and the "daily bread" of the jíbaros was plantains which are still grown there on the steep hillsides.

See also

★ Caribbean cuisine

★ Cuisine of the United States

External links

★ The Rican Chef - Recipes from the cultural magazine ''El Boricua'', Puerto Rico

★ Puerto Rican Recipes