This week, the Dominican Republic celebrated their Independence (February 27). All month long, they celebrate Carnival, and it all culminates on the 27th with parades and celebrations. In honor of that, I made Dominican Republic's national dish, La Bandera. La Bandera means "the flag" and is a lunch dish representing the country's flag. It doesn't necessarily look like the flag, so I guess it's more of a metaphorical representation. Generally, it includes rice, beans, and some kind of meat. There's usually also some extras and a salad to lighten everything up.
While shopping and prepping for this meal, I kept thinking of Kenan Thompson's impression of David Ortiz on SNL's Weekend Update. Usually it involves him talking about how he's going to celebrate: with a biiiiig lunch. He then names a bunch of foods he's going to eat. I now get it on another level! La Bandera is literally a biiiiig lunch eaten in the Dominican Republic.
The first thing I started was the rice. Now, I could have just made some plain white rice but I decided to attempt what Dominicans call "concon" which is basically just rice cooked with a crispy film on the bottom (like with paella). Some just call it "burnt rice" but it really shouldn't be burnt if done correctly. I started by washing and sieving the rice. This part is optional, but I've found it helps when you're not just boiling it like normal. It gets rid of some of the starch so it's not a gloopy mess when you stir it.
In a pot, you heat some oil, then add your water. Once it comes to a boil, the rice is added and stirred often so it doesn't stick to the bottom. You keep stirring and simmering until the water is evaporated, then it's covered and left to steam. After about 15 minutes, it's stirred one more time (more oil can be added), then covered again to cook for another 5 minutes, then stirred again, but only the top layer. The bottom layer begins to form the crust.
Mine got a tiny bit of crispiness right in the center but it wasn't an even layer like I was hoping. The rest of the rice seemed to cook pretty much perfectly though so at least that part turned out!
While the rice cooked I started on the beans. I boiled dried red kidney beans for about an hour while prepping my other ingredients: onion, garlic, bell pepper, cilantro, oregano, thyme, and some roasted butternut squash. The recipe I used called for auyama, which is a South American/Caribbean pumpkin or squash. I used butternut because it's easier to find.
After the beans were done cooking, I used the same pot to cook the rest of the ingredients plus about a cup of tomato sauce.
The beans are then added back to the pot to cook for a couple more minutes, then most of the water from boiling them is added back and the beans are mashed up slightly and cooked to a creamy consistency.
The next step was the pollo guisado, or stewed chicken. I used some frozen veggie chik'n strips (the same used in my soto ayam last week). The chicken was marinated with lime juice, oregano, garlic and onion. Meanwhile, I chopped up tomatoes and a poblano pepper. Everything went into a big pot to saute for a few minutes, then more tomato sauce and some water was added to make a stew/thin sauce.
At this point I was running around trying to get everything finished at the same time so I didn't take as many pictures. The next thing I did was fry up some plantains. These are twice-fried. They're cut into slices and fried for just a few seconds until golden on the outside, then taken out of the oil and smashed flat. After that, they're popped back into the hot oil to fry for a minute until nice and crispy and brown on the outside. When prepared this way, they're known as tostones, and are as commonplace a side dish as french fries are in the US. They were also easily the best part of this meal.
The meal would be incomplete without a nice green salad to go on the side. In this salad, I went with some crunchy romaine, sliced beets, tomatoes, and cucumbers. A simple light vinaigrette served as the dressing.
All the different components are piled on one plate, along with some avocado (which tastes amazing with tostones).
I don't have plates big enough to fit everything, so I served the salad on the side and we ate that part last as a refreshing finish to what could be a very heavy meal. Surprisingly, I didn't feel overly full or weighed down after this. I think despite being a "biiiiig lunch" there's lots of healthy things on the plate. The benefit to making it at home is that you can control the salt; I can imagine the beans and meat swimming in a overly salty stew, but the recipe I used was more tomato and veggie-forward. And Dominicans also love to talk about their platano power!
Despite the rice not being perfect, this was still a delicious plate of food. I have plenty of leftovers so I can continue to savor the beans especially. I wish I had as many leftover plantains. I could eat fried plantains every day. I probably shouldn't. But I could. Why are they so good??
Looking at all the pictures above is making me hungry again, so I'll probably dip into those leftovers sooner rather than later.
Recipes Used: La Bandera
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