Canoas: Stuffed Sweet Plantains
Stuffed sweet plantains with beef, olives and raisins
Ingredients
- 6 ripe plantains
For The Beef Filling
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1/4 c golden raisins soaked in hot water to rehydrate
- 1/2 onion fine dice, I used a red onion, but use whatever you want
- 1/2 red pepper fine dice
- 2 tbsp cilantro stems finely chopped
- 1/4 c pimento stuffed green olives rough dice
- 1 tsp vinegar white, apple cider or red wine
- 1/4 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp cumin
- 1/8 tsp ancho chilli powder
- 1/8 tsp cinnamon
Toppings
- 4 oz queso fresco queso blanco or dried mozzarella would all work here
- 1 handful cilantro roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat your over to 400°F.
- First step. Get the plantains cooking. You can certainly go ahead and fry these up, that would be the more typical route to take here, but since I hate deep frying in the house I’m baking em. The time will depend on the ripeness of your plantains, but get them lightly coated in oil, a bit of salt and then into a 400°F oven. Let them cook for about 15 mins, then turn them over and cook for another 15mins. Check for doneness, you should be able to easily pierce through them with a small pairing knife. If they need it, cook for another 10 minutes or so till they’re done.
- Next up, while those plantains are cooking, you can get the filling situated. You want to start by getting your beef browned. Add it into a pan over medium-high heat with a touch of oil and a good bit of salt. Once your meat has some color and is pretty much cooked through you can go ahead and add it to a bowl and set aside while we get the veg going.
- Add your onions, peppers and cilantro stems to the same pan with a bit more oil and salt and cook them till they’re nice and soft. You’re not aiming for a ton of color on these, you just want everything to sweat and get soft and the onions to get translucent. Once that’s happened you’re in a good place to add that ground beef back in the pan, along with any juices it may have left behind, and toss in the spices. Add your cumin, oregano, ancho cilli powder, cinnamon then let cook till everything is super fragrant. Toss in the olives, raisins (make sure to squeeze out any excess soaking liquid) and a dash of vinegar or lime juice, the acid will help brighten everything up, so be sure to add it in. Let cook another minute or so and then take it off the heat to cool a bit while those plantains finish baking.
- Now we stuff. Once your plantains are tender, you can go ahead and make a slice down the center of each one to create that canoe shape. Try and avoid slicing through the whole thing, you don’t want that filling going all over the place, aim for about halfway through and about an inch in from each end. Then add in a few spoonfuls of the beef filling, basically as much as you can or want to add in there, top with some cheese and get those beauties under a broiler to brown on top. Once you have achieved sufficient browning on that cheese, pull them from the oven, top with a good handful of chopped cilantro. Eat up!
Did You Make This Recipe?
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