Bandeja Paisa
Colombia's national mega-plate: a single platter of red beans, white rice, chicharrón, chorizo, fried egg, avocado, arepa, plantain and grilled steak.
Overview
Each component cooks separately and arrives on the same wide platter: braised red beans (frijoles paisas); white long-grain rice; fried pork belly (chicharrón); grilled or fried chorizo; sliced grilled steak; ripe plantain fried sweet; an egg sunny-side up; ½ avocado; an arepa de maíz.
Ingredients
Per serving
- 250 g cooked Frijoles Paisas
- 200 g cooked white rice
- 1 piece chicharrón (90 g pre-cooked pork belly - see Notes)
- 1 chorizo (Colombian-style or Spanish chorizo)
- 1 thin steak (sirloin or skirt, 100-120 g per person)
- ½ ripe plantain (sliced lengthways and fried - tajadas)
- 1 egg (large)
- ½ ripe avocado
- 1 arepa de maíz blanco (white-corn arepa, 1 per person)
- Vegetable oil for frying
- salt
- pepper
Garnish
- 1 small bowl of hogao (Colombian sofrito, on the side)
- A few sliced spring onions
Method
Stage 1 - Reheat beans and rice
- Warm the beans gently in a pot, with a splash of stock if thick.
- Reheat the rice covered with a splash of water.
Stage 2 - Chicharrón
- Heat 5 mm of oil in a wide pan to medium-high.
- Fry the pre-cooked pork belly pieces skin-up first, 4-5 minutes, then flip and cook 3 more minutes until the skin is crisp and blistered. (See Notes for the pre-cooking step.)
- Drain on kitchen paper.
Stage 3 - Chorizo
- In the same pan, fry the chorizo 4-5 minutes, turning, until plump and gold.
Stage 4 - Plantain
- Lower the heat to medium. Add the plantain slices; fry 2-3 minutes per side until deep gold and soft.
- Salt lightly.
Stage 5 - Steak
- Heat a separate pan very hot. Sear the steaks 90 seconds per side. Rest 3 minutes; slice or leave whole.
Stage 6 - Eggs
- In a clean pan, fry each egg sunny-side up.
Stage 7 - Arepa
- Warm the arepas on a dry hot pan 90 seconds per side.
Stage 8 - Plate
- On a wide platter (the bandeja), arrange each component in its own corner:
- Rice in the centre with beans ladled to one side
- Chicharrón on top of the beans
- Chorizo, plantain, arepa, steak, avocado around the edge
- Egg balanced on the rice
- Place hogao and spring onions in a small bowl on the side.
Stage 9 - Eat
- With a fork and a smile. Mix components as you go.
Notes
- Pre-cooked pork belly: Season pork belly with salt, refrigerate 2 hours, simmer covered in water 1 hour 30 minutes, then cool and slice. Fry portions as needed. Or use a butcher's chicharrón cuts.
- Arepa is the bread: Made from white-corn pre-cooked masarepa. Sold in Latin food shops as Harina P.A.N. Mix with water + salt + cheese, shape into patties, griddle.
- Components ahead: The trick is to have beans, rice, pork belly and chorizo ready. Then it's a fast assembly.
Storage
- All components keep 3 days separately. Don't pre-plate.
Recipes mentioned here
Frijoles Paisas
Dried red beans soak overnight. Bacon and chorizo render in a wide pot; aromatics build the base; soaked beans simmer with a chunk of green plantain (the trick, it dissolves over the cook and naturally thickens the broth) and pork belly for 2 hours. Hogao folds in at the end. Lime brightens.
Hogao
Long spring onion (cebolla larga) and white onion are softened in oil; garlic, cumin and annatto come in; grated tomato cooks down 15 minutes until thick and sticky. Seasoned and rested. The texture is somewhere between a sauce and a paste, spoonable but coating.
Tajadas
The plantains are peeled and cut lengthways into 5 mm slices, then fried in a shallow pool of vegetable oil until deep gold. Ripe (yellow with black spots) plantains caramelise sweet and turn soft; green plantains stay starchy and crisp. Each works, depending on what's on the plate.
More like this
Creole Daube
Beef chuck cubes brown hard; the trinity (onion, celery, pepper) soften deep in the rendered fat; tomato puree and tinned tomato build a rich base; red wine, stock, herbs and the beef simmer for 3 hours covered. Uncovered for the last 30 minutes to reduce. Serve over rice with chopped parsley.
Holubtsi
A whole cabbage is cored and lowered into boiling water; the outer leaves soften and peel off in turn. The filling, half-cooked rice mixed with beef, pork, onion, garlic, herbs, egg, gets a heaped tablespoon onto each leaf, which folds and rolls into a parcel. The rolls layer in a pot with sauce of tomato, stock and soured cream; everything braises for 1 hour. Soured cream and dill at the table.
Sobrebarriga
Whole flank (or skirt) simmers in stock with aromatics 2 hours until tender enough to push apart with a fork but still holding shape. Left to cool. The cooking liquid reduces with sofrito (onion, tomato, garlic) and a splash of beer into a thick gravy. The meat lifts onto a tray, gets brushed with the gravy, then grills under high heat 5-7 minutes until the surface caramelises dark and crackly. Slice; ladle gravy over.
Chorrillana
The Valparaíso bar classic, the giant shareable platter that lands in the middle of the table at every port-city watering hole. You deep-fry thick-cut chips until they're crisp and gold, sear thinly-sliced sirloin (lomo) hot in a wide pan, soften and lightly char onion in the same fat, and fry eggs sunny-side up. Everything piles into a single wide platter: chips on the bottom, steak and onion on top, eggs cracked over the lot so the yolks can run down. Some versions add slices of chorizo. Eaten communally with forks reaching from every side and a cold beer doing the rounds.