Spanish teacher cooks traditional dishes from home
Oct. 19—BOONEVILLE — Once a semester, Spanish teacher Monica Lamelas cooks for her students at Booneville High School.
Last week, she made them paella with chicken and sausage, fried plantains, and a potato and egg dish called a tortilla.
"It's a reward, an incentive for the kids," said Lamelas, 48. "We always talk about culture in class, and my cooking coincides with the unit on food."
The dishes Lamelas made are ones she grew up eating in the Dominican Republic. Her family lived in Santo Domingo, the capital, near the Colonial Zone.
"I was exposed to many cultures and cuisines," she said. "We had Italian, Indian and Spanish restaurants in our neighborhood. I ate Arab food. There was nothing I wouldn't try."
Lamelas' mother worked for the government, and when the Japanese delegation would visit, they'd serve Japanese food.
"Japanese food — now that was different," she said.
Lamelas' mother wasn't a good cook, but Lamelas had an uncle who was a professional chef, and she would follow him around when he visited.
"I started getting involved in the kitchen when I was 10 or 11," she said. "We'd go to the market, and select a live chicken for dinner. Then we'd go off to buy the vegetables for the rest of the meal, and by the time we got back, the chicken would be still be warm — plucked, but not butchered. I learned to gut a whole chicken and cut it up."
The family would then make a traditional lunch meal called the Dominican Flag — white rice, red beans, meat and a green salad. For Lamelas, that usually meant stewed or fried chicken, rice, cooked dried beans and a salad made with tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and fresh avocados.
"We seasoned our salads with olive oil, salt, pepper and vinegar," she said. "We didn't use salad dressings."
Lamelas, who lives in Mantachie, cooks a lot of her native dishes for her husband, Louis McCollum, and her son, Sean Williams, when he's home from Mississippi State University.
But she's also found an appreciation for Hello Fresh, a meal-kit provider, and she has three meals delivered each week.
"I order the meals for four, so that my husband and I have leftovers," she said. She tries to choose options that appeal to her roots.
Last week's kit had spicy Peruvian chicken with loaded rice, pickled jalapeños and salsa verde; balsamic rosemary pork chops with garlic toast and green beans; and pork fajitas bowls with blue corn chips, pico de gallo and chili lime crema.
"I haven't learned to cook Southern specialties, like dressing, collard greens, and chicken and dumplings," she said. "But I like eating those things when we go out."
DO YOU KNOW A GOOD COOK? Send your nominations to Ginna Parsons, Cook of the Week, P.O. Box 909, Tupelo, MS 38802. Or you can call (662) 678-1581 or email them to ginna.parsons@journalinc.com.
CHICKEN AND SAUSAGE PAELLA
3 to 4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 pound smoked beef or pork sausage
Salt and pepper
Paprika
1 onion
Garlic
3 tomatoes
1 red or yellow bell pepper
4 cups chicken stock
Saffron
White wine
Olive oil
2 cups arborio rice
12 ounces English peas, asparagus stalks or whole green beans
Chopped parsley and lemon wedges, for serving
Cut the chicken and sausage into bite-size pieces. Season with salt, pepper and paprika. Dice the onion, and peel and crush the garlic. Dice or grate the tomatoes, and slice pepper into long thin strips.
Heat stock in a stock pot. Crush saffron threads and add to the stock with a little bit of white wine.
Heat paella pan over medium heat, add oil and cook chicken until it begins to brown. Add onion and garlic and saute until translucent. Add sausage and cook until heated.
Add the rice, stirring until well coated with oil. Add more paprika and the tomatoes. Stir while cooking for a few minutes. Add the hot saffron-wine flavored stock.
Bring to a boil while scraping from the bottom of the pan. The rice should be level and you shouldn't have to stir again. Add the peas, asparagus spears or green beans, and bell pepper strips. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and carefully move the paella pan to the oven and cook at 350 degrees. Once all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender, remove pan from heat and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and garnish with lemon wedges, to serve.
For seafood paella, substitute shrimp, clams, mussels, squid, octopus, etc., for the chicken and sausage, and use seafood stock instead of chicken stock.
TORTILLA DE PATATAS
3 large potatoes
1/2 onion
Vegetable or canola oil, for frying
Salt
6 to 8 eggs
Pepper
Olive oil
Peel and thinly slice the potatoes and onions. Deep fry the potatoes and onions in oil over medium heat, adding salt while they're frying. Don't let the potatoes brown; you want them to be softly cooked.
Drain the potatoes. In a deep bowl, scramble the eggs. Add the potato-onion mixture and stir well to combine. Season with salt and pepper.
Drizzle some olive oil in a 10-inch non-stock skillet over medium heat. Add the potato-egg mixture and swirl to evenly cover the skillet. Let brown for a few minutes. When it looks set, use a lid to flip the tortilla, and let cook a few more minutes on that side, until the egg is cooked. Serve warm, at room temperature or cold.
DOMINICAN SANCOCHO
(Beef and Chicken Stew)
1 pound beef stew meat
Juice of 2 limes
1 teaspoon minced cilantro or parsley
1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon garlic, crushed
1 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 whole chicken, cut up
1 pound bone-in pork chops
2 ears fresh corn, cut into half-inch slices (optional)
1/2 gallon water
1/2 pound kabocha squash, cut into 1-inch pieces—
3 green, unripe plantains, peeled (cut 2 into 1-inch pieces and leave 1 whole)
1/2 pound yam, cut into 1-inch pieces—
1/2 pound malanga, cut into 1-inch pieces—
1/2 pound cassava or yucca, cut into 1-inch pieces—
Place the beef in a bowl and season with lime juice, cilantro or parsley, oregano, garlic, and salt. Toss to coat, and marinate at least a half hour (an hour is better).
In a large pot, heat the oil over high heat. Add the seasoned beef, and cook, stirring until browned. Add the chicken pieces, pork chops, and corn, if using, and cook, stirring for a couple of minutes.
Lower heat to medium and add water. Simmer until it breaks the boil. Once the water breaks the boil, add squash, chopped plantain, yam, malanga and cassava.
Grate, or scrape with the knife the remaining plantain to make it into a pulp, and add to the pot.
Simmer covered over low heat until the last ingredients cooked through. The stew should have thickened a bit, too. If it dries out too much, add water as necessary, or simmer uncovered to reduce if it is not thick enough for your taste.
Add more salt if needed. Remove from the heat; remove and discard skin and bones from meat; serve.
— If you can't find kabocha squash, substitute acorn or butternut squash. If you can't find yams, don't substitute sweet potatoes — they're too sweet. If you can't find malanga, substitute white potatoes. You can find frozen cassava/yucca at Hispanic grocery stores.
PASTELON DE PLATANO MADURO
(Ripe Plantain Casserole)
FILLING
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 red onion, diced
1 tablespoon mashed garlic
1 pound ground beef
1 cup tomato sauce
1 bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro or parsley
TO ASSEMBLE
6 ripe, yellow plantains
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick salted butter
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
For the filling, heat oil over medium-low heat. Stir in onion and cook and stir until it turns translucent. Add garlic and cook, stirring, for a minute.
Add ground beef and cook and stir, breaking into small clumps until it browns. Add tomato sauce, bell pepper, salt, pepper and cilantro. Stir and cover. Simmer for 3 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper, if needed. Remove from heat.
To assemble, peel the plantains and boil, adding 1 teaspoon of salt to the water. Once the plantains are fork tender, 15 to 20 minutes, remove the pot from heat. Take the plantains out of the water right away, and mash them with a fork. Add the butter and keep mashing until it is very smooth with no lumps.
Grease a 1-inch tall baking pan. Put half of the plantain mixture in the baking pan. Cover with half of the cheese. Cover the cheese with the meat mixture. Cover with the remaining plantain mixture. Cover with the rest of the cheese. Bake at 350 degrees until the top is golden brown. Remove from oven and let rest 5 minutes before serving.
TOSTONES
(Flattened Fried Plantains)
2 green, unripe plantains
1/2 cup vegetable oil, peanut, corn or canola oil
Salt, to taste
Peel the plantains. Discard the ends and cut the flesh into 1-inch slices.
Heat the oil over medium heat in a skillet, and lower the plantain slices into the oil with a slotted spoon. Fry the plantains until light golden, about 5 minutes.
Remove plantains from oil. Flatten the plantains to about 1/4-inch using a tostonera. You can also use the bottom of a big jar and press on a cutting table if you don't have a tostonera.
Fry the plantains again until they turn golden yellow on both sides, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with salt to taste and serve immediately. Best served freshly fried. If desired, drizzle with ketchup or mayonnaise before serving.
DULCE DE LECHE CORTADA
(Curdled Milk Fudge)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 medium egg, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups whole milk, at room temperature
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon lime zest
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/4 cup raisins or prunes (optional)
1/4 cup lime juice
Combine sugar and egg, stirring until they are well mixed. Stir in the milk. Sieve to eliminate undissolved egg parts. Mix in cinnamon stick, lime and orange zest, and raisins or prunes, if using.
Pour mixture into a saucepan and simmer over low heat. Once it breaks the boil, pour in lime juice in different spots. Simmer without stirring unless it is sticking to the pot. The milk will eventually (after about 10 minutes) curdle, and chunks will float in thin syrup. Once the thin syrup has reduced to about half, remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Remove the cinnamon stick. Chill before serving.
