Sofrito Recipes
Note: These recipes are submitted by our customers that grow their own Culantro (Recao), and Ajies Dulces. Here in my home, we make sofrito twice a year, when the Culantro and Ajies are at their prime and pour it in Ice Cube trays, freeze it, and store the cubes in Zip Lock bags in the freezer. We have fresh sofrito the whole year ! Although you can use the standard sofrito with just about anything you cook, there are small variations to bring out that "sabor" in our typical culinary creations. For example: For the sofrito used to make arroz con gandules, there is diced "tocino" added to the sofrito which consists of aji dulce, culantro, onions, fresh garlic. and fresh oregano.
Here is my recipe with photos of the whole process.......
All ingredients ready to go in processor-----------------Garlic heads in water to remove skins
Culantro leaves going into food processor -------------------------food processor grinding mix
After the food processor, then you add oil and go into the osterizer for a fine grind and then into the icecube trays
Ready to go in the freezer...
My Basic Sofrito Recipe:
2 pounds- large green peppers
1 pound- medium size head of garlic
3 pounds- large onions
1- bunch of cilantro
1/2 cup- vegetable oil
Add these items from your own "hortaliza"...
50- recao leaves
1 pound- ajies dulce (small sweet cooking peppers)
Place all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and chop
coarsely. Add in the water a small amount at a time.Pour this
mixture into icecube trays and freeze. Anytime you are going to
cook some asopao, habichuelas, arroz con gandules, or your own
carne guizada, just throw in 1-2 cubes of Sofrito. Add this
mixture (to taste) to bean dishes, stews, soups, and anything
else you want to spice up.
My variation for arroz con gandules is adding chopped "salt pork" (tocino) and jamon de cocinar (smoked ham) (especially the cueros (skins) from the jamón), and covering the whole caldero (pot) with banana leaves. (You can't beat the flavor)
Note: In order to skin the garlic cloves easily, separate all cloves and place in warm water overnight or longer and the skins will come right off.
Contributed by: Jose Puras
The latest received
Submitted by: Millie Gonzalez
Dear Jose Puras,
You\'ve received the following recipe(s) from a friend.
« Sofrito for One (dish) »
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Yield: 1 portion
* Ingredients
1 T Crisco
4 oz cooked ham
Dry ingredients:
1 t adobo
1 t oregano
1 t thyme
1 t rosemary
˝ t tarragon
3 culantro leaves
4 cloves garlic
1 medium onion
˝ cubanelle pepper
6 ajies dulces
1 envelope Sazon Goya con culantro y achiote
6 oz. tomato sauce
* Preparation
Chop ham into 3/4 inch pieces and place into hot pot with
melted Crisco over medium heat. Stir occasionally.
Place dry ingredients in mortar and grind to combine flavors;
tear up washed culantro leaves into 1 inch pieces and add to
mortar. Grind into dry ingredients. Add garlic cloves, one by one
and combine with other ingredients to form a paste.
Scrape out paste with a silicone spatula and add to pan with ham
crisps. Stir. Shut off heat to prevent garlic paste from
overcooking.
In a food processor combine, onion, pepper and ajies. Pulse
together until finely chopped. Add to pan and turn on the heat to
medium. Add sazon Goya.
Cook ingredients together for 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce and
cook another 5 minutes.
You now have a sofrito base to which you can add beans, rice,
meats, or fish.
* Special Notes
Enjoy!
Here is another...........
This recipe always works for me I can't say that it's unique but I love it, and the food comes sssooo GOOD
1 Medium Yellow Onion
2 Cloves of fresh Garlic (Crushed)
1/2 Of a Green Pepper
1 Medium Tomato
Olive Oil with Achiote
1 Teaspoon Salt
4 or 5 Stuffed Olives
Chop the Onion set aside, crsh the Garlic and finely chop up the Green Pepper and Tomato.In a saucepan (Caldero) pour about 2 to 3 tablespoons of the Olive Oil with Aciote let it heat up, add teh Onion and Pepper stir it up until the Onion becomes transparent and the pepper is soft, add your salt and olives and crush the olives with a fork add the Garlic and cook through. The reason you would add the Garlic last is to keep it from browning or burning when this happens to Garlic the whole Dish or condiment takes on a very bitter taste. Than you can add your rice or Meat whatever you want add a wonderful flavor to.
Enjoy!!! Buen Provecho!!!!
Submitted by: Gisele Gonzales
My Sofrito
4 bundles of Cilantro
4 bundles of Recao
8 heads of Garlic
5 medium onions
2lbs. of Aji Dulce
1 large Green Pepper
1 jar of Pimiento (don't add the water)
Wash the cilantro and recao thoroughly, peel garlic, slice onion and green pepper in chunks, wash and take seeds out of aji dulce, rinse off pimiento. Slowly add ingredients to blender with some water to make it easier to puree. With this I usually have enough to last me for about 2-3 months, unless I sell it to my family and friends.
Kelli L. Perez
And another..........
1. 3 bags garlic (peeled)
2. 2 packages of recaito
3. 2 packages of culantro
4. 3 large red onions
5. 3 red bell peppers
6. 3 green peppers
7. 1 bag of ajices (dulces not spicy)
Blend everything in a food processer or blender ad a cooking spoon of cooking oil.And just blend, place in microwaveable plastic bowl's(like the one from the chinese places) and freeze and when you are ready to use just defrost in the microwave.
This is my personal recipe for sofrito:
1 lb of yellow onions, peeled and cut into chunks
1 lb of red peppers, cleaned and cut in chunks
1 lb. of green peppers, cleaned and cut in chunks
3 bunches of cilantro
20 leaves of culantro
4 head of garlic cloves, peeled
15 stems of scallions or green onions
8 - 10 stems of celery
1 bunch of flat leaves parsley
12 - 18 sweet small peppers (ajicitos dulces)
16 oz. stuffed olives with liquid
1/2 cup cooking wine cooking wine
1/2 small habanero pepper (opcional)
Mix all ingredients in a blender or food procesor adding the stuffed olives liquid and cooking wine as needed. The mix should be of a soft texture, but not 'runnie' and 'chunky', but not similar to cole slaw.
Hope you like it!
Irely
Take a peek at Irely's art work.......
http://visualartarray.com/gallery/2001/general/Irely/index.html
http://www.visualartarray.com/gallery/2002/painting/Montes,%20Irely/index.html
My Family's "Sofrito" Recipe
3 garlic heads
2 medium-size onions
1 bell green pepper, seedless
1 large size tomatoe
1 tspn oregano leaves
12 small sweet peppers, seedless (ajies dulces)
15 to 20 cilantro/cilantrillo stems (ramitas)
15 to 20 culantro/recao leaves
10 to 15 olives (pitted) 1 tablespoon of capers (The olives and capers can be substituted for "Alcaparrado Goya" which has the olives stuffed with red peppers and capers. Add some of the liquid to the mixture.)
Wash thoroughly the cilantro and recao. In a blender or food processor, mix all ingredients to a coarse puree. Store in an ice-cube tray and freeze. Use one or two cubes when cooking soups, stews, and/or seasoning meats.
Submitted by Erisbelia Garriga,
This is the original recipe from the East Philly Community Gardeners in North Philadelphia:
SOFRITO
4 cups cilantrillo (coriander leaves or leaves, stems, buds and
roots) washed and dried
4 cups culantro (recao, Eryngium) or 4 more cups cilantrillo
3 very large onions, peeled and cut in chunks
2 heads garlic, peeled
3 pounds red and green sweet peppers, seeded and cut up
1 cup olive or vegetable oil
1 tablespoon salt
1 cup ajies dulces (small sweet cooking peppers), tops removed
or an additional cup of sweet red peppers plus 1 tsp
cayenne
Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and puree.
Makes 8-10 cups. Add 3-5 tablespoons to a large pot of
chicken and
rice soup, 2-3 tablespoons to each pound of cooked rice. It
goes
well with almost everything, and it freezes well too.
Philadelphia, PA
USDA zone 7A Sunset zone 32
Contributed
by: Libby J. Goldstein
