Bandeja Paisa (Bandeja Montañera)

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Colombia's national platter, from Antioquia: red beans cooked with green plantain, white rice, ground beef, crisp chicharrón, chorizo, a fried egg and sweet fried plantain, all on one very large plate. Nothing here is difficult on its own. The work is getting seven things hot at the same time. Serves six.

Prep Time20

Cook Time1 30

Total Time1 50

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Colombian

Keyword: bandeja paisa

Servings:

Calories: 2055kcal

Author: Angela Giraldo

Ingredients

1½ cups red beans cargamanto if you can find them; soaked overnight, see step 1
1 lb chicharrón (skin-on pork belly) fresh pork belly with the skin on, not the bagged puffed snack sold as pork rinds
1½ lb ground beef
3 chorizos Colombian chorizo is a firm fresh sausage cooked whole; Mexican chorizo crumbles and behaves differently
3 eggs
1 cup rice
1 large ripe plantain the skin should be mostly black; that is when it is sweet
3 large scallions (cebolla larga), chopped
3 ripe tomatoes for the hogao
½ onion a regular onion; the original calls it cebolla de huevo
1 garlic clove
½ carrot, grated goes into the beans
1 green plantain peeled and diced, into the beans; this is not the same plantain as the ripe one
Oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Soak the beans overnight in plenty of water.
Finely chop the scallions, onion, garlic and tomatoes and fry them in a little oil over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring so they do not catch. This is hogao, the Colombian sofrito, and it gets used twice.
Put the beans into a pressure cooker with their soaking water, adding more water if needed. Cook under pressure for about 20 minutes, then release the pressure and take the lid off carefully.
Add half the hogao, the peeled and diced green plantain, and the grated carrot.
Cook under pressure for another 20 to 25 minutes, then take it off the heat and set aside.
Cook the rice: 2½ cups of water to 1 cup of rice, with salt and a little oil. Cook over high heat until the water on the surface has gone, then lower the heat, cover and give it 15 minutes more.
Fry the ground beef in a little oil with salt, pepper and the rest of the hogao. Set it aside when it is done.
In a pan, fry the chicharrón and the chorizos in the fat that renders out of the pork, until the chicharrón is crisp and golden.
Slice the ripe plantain on the diagonal and fry the slices in oil until they are golden at the edges. Lift them out.
In a pan with a little butter, fry the eggs one at a time and set them aside.
Serve on the largest plate you own: a portion of rice, a portion of beans, a portion of ground beef, a piece of chicharrón, a chorizo, a fried egg and a couple of slices of ripe plantain.

Notes

The beans, the hogao and the ground beef can all be made the day before, which is what most Colombian households do. Reheat them while you fry the chicharrón, the plantain and the eggs, and the plate lands hot. Arepa and avocado are not in the ingredient list but they belong on the plate, and so do patacones if you want the full version. Leftovers become calentado the next morning, fried up with fresh tomato and onion.

Nutrition