An aborrajado is a piece of very ripe plantain fried once, flattened, wrapped around a slice of cheese, dipped in a sweet batter and fried again. Sweet on the outside, salty and molten in the middle.
It comes from Valle del Cauca, in the southwest of Colombia, and it is afternoon food, eaten with coffee or hot chocolate.
Plantain, not banana
Worth stating first because it is the single thing that decides whether this works, and because translated recipes get it wrong constantly.
In Spanish, plátano is a plantain and banano is a banana. They look alike and behave nothing alike. A ripe banana is soft, sweet and full of water: it collapses in hot oil, and at the point where the recipe asks you to flatten it with the base of a plate, it becomes purée.
A ripe plantain is much starchier. It caramelises on the outside, stays intact when flattened, and holds its shape through a second frying with cheese inside it. The whole architecture of an aborrajado depends on that.
Wait for the black skin
The plantain has to be very ripe, which means the skin should be mostly or completely black. Supermarkets sell them yellow and firm, and at that stage they are still a starchy vegetable.
A yellow plantain fried in oil stays bland and slightly waxy. A black one has converted most of its starch into sugar, so it caramelises at the edges and turns sweet, which is what the salty cheese inside is there to play against. Without that contrast you have a fried patty and not much else.
If yours are yellow, leave them on the counter for a few days. They will get there.
Fried twice, and why
The double frying is the technique, and each pass does something different.
The first cooks the plantain through and softens it enough to be flattened. Three minutes over medium-low heat, turning, until golden on all sides. Too hot and the outside colours before the inside softens, and then it cracks when you press it.
The second, after the cheese is inside and the batter is on, is about the coating. Two minutes is enough: the batter needs to set and colour, and the cheese needs to melt, and nothing else is being cooked at that point.
Flattening and sealing
Put each fried piece between two sheets of plastic wrap or baking paper and press it down with your palm or the base of a plate. The plastic is not optional: hot plantain sticks to everything, including you.
Press it flat but not thin. You want a patty thick enough to fold around a slice of cheese without tearing.
Then the cheese goes on, the plantain folds over it, and you press the edges together all the way round. This is where aborrajados go wrong: an unsealed seam lets the cheese escape into the oil during the second fry, and what comes out is a patty with a hole in it and a pan full of burnt cheese.
The batter
Flour, sugar, salt, eggs and milk, mixed to something soft and pourable. It is closer to a pancake batter than to a tempura, and the sugar in it is deliberate: it browns fast and adds to the sweetness of the plantain.
Add the eggs to the dry ingredients gradually rather than all at once, then the milk. Lumps that go in raw stay in the finished coating.
Which cheese
Queso costeño or queso campesino is what is used in Colombia: firm, salty, fresh cheeses that soften in the heat without turning to liquid. That saltiness is doing real work against a plantain this sweet.
Mozzarella is the usual substitute and gives a better cheese pull, but it is much milder. If that is what you have, a little salt on the plantain before the cheese goes on gets you closer.
Eat them immediately
Aborrajados do not keep and do not wait. The batter softens, the cheese sets, and within twenty minutes you have something quite different from what came out of the pan.
Which is inconvenient and also the reason they taste the way they do in Cali. Fry them when everyone is at the table.
More plantain
- Patacones — the green plantain version, salty instead of sweet.
- Ripe plantain arepas — the same fruit on a griddle.
- Plantain canoes — split, filled and baked.
Aborrajados FAQ
Plantain, and it is not interchangeable. A ripe banana is soft and watery: it breaks up in the oil and turns to purée when you flatten it. Plantain has far more starch, so it holds together through frying, flattening, stuffing and frying again. Recipes that say banana here have been mistranslated.
Very. The skin should be mostly or entirely black, which looks alarming and is exactly right. A yellow plantain is still starchy and will taste bland and stay firm. The sweetness that plays against the salty cheese only develops at that late stage.
A snack from Valle del Cauca in southwestern Colombia: ripe plantain fried, flattened into a patty, wrapped around a slice of cheese, dipped in a sweet batter and fried a second time. Sweet outside, salty and molten inside. Eaten with coffee or hot chocolate, usually in the afternoon.
Traditionally queso costeño or queso campesino, firm salty fresh cheeses that soften without disappearing. Mozzarella is the common substitute and melts more, which gives you the cheese pull but less saltiness. What you want is something salty enough to stand against a very sweet plantain.
The edges were not sealed. After you wrap the plantain around the cheese, press the seam firmly all the way round before it goes anywhere near the batter. The batter itself helps hold it, but it cannot rescue a patty that is already open.
Not really. An aborrajado is at its best in the first few minutes, while the cheese still stretches and the batter is crisp. They go soft and heavy as they cool and reheating brings back the heat but not the crunch. Fry them when people are ready to eat them.
📖 Recipe
Aborrajados (Colombian Fried Plantain with Cheese)
Imprimir Pin ComentarIngredients
- 2 large very ripe plantains (plantain, not banana. The skin should be mostly black)
- Oil, for frying
- 4 slices mozzarella, or the cheese you prefer (queso costeño or campesino is traditional; mozzarella melts more and is the usual substitute)
- 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour (for the batter)
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 3 tablespoons milk
- A pinch of salt
Notas
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large pan or pot over medium heat.
- Peel the plantains and cut them in half, put them in the pan and turn the heat down to medium-low.
- Fry them for about 3 minutes, turning, until golden on all sides.
- Lift them onto paper towels to drain. Then put each piece between two sheets of plastic wrap or baking paper and flatten it with your hand or the base of a plate.
- Lay a slice of cheese on each flattened piece and fold the plantain around it into a small patty, pressing the edges to seal.
- In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar and salt, add the eggs a little at a time, then the milk, until you have a soft batter. Set it aside.
- Dip each patty in the batter and fry over medium heat for about two minutes, turning once, until golden.
- Drain on paper towels and serve with a cup of hot chocolate.
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