By James Denton, age 39
I recently set out on a journey to reconnect three of my adopted children to their biological heritage. They are of Hispanic descent. Specifically, their biological father was from Puerto Rico, and their biological grandfather is from Uruguay.
It was a no-brainer to want them to learn (or relearn) Spanish. I feel that it is one of the most useful skills that you can have in America today. No matter what line of work you go into, speaking both of the two most commonly spoken languages will serve you well. My wife jumped on board as well, partly because we had a trip to Cancun planned, pre-Covid. She started using Duolingo and liked it a lot, so the kids did too. All of my family is amazed at how much Spanish I know, without ever having taken classes. I am mostly self-taught from friends and my years in the food service industry.
With the linguistic connection in place, we could get down to the important stuff: food. My children recently lost a biological relative, which gave this mission a sense of urgency. They had often mentioned memories of that person cooking them leftover rice with a fried egg on top. What a universally perfect dish! All over the world this is comfort food. So we started preparing this for them after their loved one’s passing. It’s very simple; we’ve done it with white rice, brown rice, yellow rice, arroz con gondolas, even Indian pilau.
Another time, I wanted to find an Uraguayan dish to flex on. I discovered Panchos. Panchos are Uraguayan hot dogs, topped with sweet corn, cheese, onion, spicy chilies, and a ketchup-mayonnaise mix called “salsa golf”. How cool. Homemade hot dog buns put it over the top. I should have a blog post coming up on them soon.
I then challenged myself to really lean into the Puerto Rican cuisine I grew up in such close proximity to. First, in Bridgeport, CT, I was raised amidst the fragrances of sofrito and adobo. My neighbors, friends, and classmates were first- or second-generation Boricuen. My mother grew up there as well, in the infamous housing projects, and would cook rice and beans for us, with the tell-tale green olives so common in Puerto Rican arroz. Then, in Central Florida, I was again immersed into a mecca of Boricua culture. Many of my friends, classmates, and coworkers spoke English as a second language. They invited me into their lives and their families and to me they just felt more like home than some of the comparatively new, rural cultural practices I was being exposed to. Shout out to my boy Cuebas, rest in peace, brother.
The quintessential Puerto Rican comfort food is arroz con pollo, or chicken and rice. Arroz con Pollo begins with Sofrito. Typically you can buy Sofrito in most grocery stores in the ethnic food aisle, but it is always better to make your own. It’s pretty simple too! I diced three bell peppers and one poblano (because I had it), two yellow onions, and about 10 cloves of garlic. I sweated the peppers and onions in some olive oil until the onions became translucent and then added the garlic and continued to cook until fragrant. To this I added three cilantro ice cubes that I made this past summer when I had an abundance of cilantro growing in my garden. (This is one of those tips that I always heard about, but never tried, and it was a real winner. Any herbs that are not suitable for dehydration can be blended up into a paste, frozen in ice cube trays, and then moved to a freezer bag for use throughout the year.)
Once the Sofrito is stewed down and the flavors are all melded together, you can either blend it into a paste, or leave it chunky as I did. In another pan, I heated some olive oil with achiote, just until fragrant, and then strained the oil. I used this beautiful red oil to fry my chicken thighs, skin side down until very crispy. I then flipped the chicken thighs and cooked the other side until they receive some nice color. I actually did this in the bottom of my instant pot on sauté. After I removed the chicken, I added 2 cups of rinsed brown rice to the instant pot, the remaining achiote oil, and stir-fried it for about a minute, until the rice was nutty and fragrant. To this I added my reserved Sofrito, a can of tomatoes from our garden last year, about 20 green olives, and topped it all with those beautiful chicken thighs. Twenty minutes on manual and that’s all she wrote!
Another famous dish is chicharrons, or fried pork belly. I had some pork belly in the freezer from a local pig, so I decided to give that a whirl as well. I marinated to pork belly in garlic and oregano for a few hours. I par-boiled the pork belly slices in just a little water, so that they would render some of their own fat out, which I then fried them in. They came out perfect!
