Shrimp and Corn filled Tostones

Coming from a Puerto Rican background, I grew up on rice, beans and plantains. My mother is Irish and married my dad who is a full blooded Rican..and luckily before my Puerto Rican Grandmother passed away, she taught my mother everything there is to know about Spanish food. These recipes and skills are being passed down to me - and although I still have a lot to learn, I am adapting pretty well to some new creations!

At age 21 I visited Puerto Rico for the first time. Not only was it gorgeous, but their food was so incredible. While there, I tried my first filled plantain (aka a tostones) - it was filled with shrimp, mango and other delicious flavors. Tonight, I created a dish that includes shrimp, corn, *sofrito, tomato paste and a few seasonings. *Sofrito is a special blend of all different flavors, it is later frozen into cubes and used in many Spanish recipes as a base. There are many sofrito recipes online that you can try, and you can use fresh sofrito instead of the frozen cubes!

Serves: 6-10
Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes


Ingredients:

1/2 lb shrimp - peeled, cleaned, deveined and finely chopped

1/3 cup corn (I used frozen and let them thaw out a bit) 

2 Tbs butter

1 frozen cube of sofrito (about 2-3 tbs)

1 Tbs tomato paste

1 tsp paprika 

1 tsp red pepper flakes 

2 Tbs chives, finely chopped

Salt & Pepper, to taste
Garlic salt, to taste

3 plantains, peeled and cut into 1" pieces 

Oil for frying (*NOTE: these are done best in a deep fryer - the plantains will need to be fully submerged in oil while frying)

Directions:

1. Preheat a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Melt 1 tbs butter in pan and cook corn for about 5 minutes, stirring often. 

2. Add the other tbs of butter and chopped shrimp to pan. Saute shrimp for a couple of minutes. Melt in one cube of sofrito, and add the tomato paste, paprika, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper and 1 tbs chives - stir well until shrimp is cooked through. Remove mixture from pan and set aside.

3. Preheat oil to 300 degrees. Once the temperature is reached, fry plantains for 5 minutes until golden. (NOTE: I use a deep fryer for this step which is very easy to use). Using a bowl shaped tosterna, also called a tostonera relleno (you can purchase one here for 8$), smash each banana and set aside. *See below for pictures of the smashing process.

4. Preheat oil to 350 degrees, and fry the bowl shaped plantains for about 3 minutes, until golden and crispy. Season with garlic salt.

5. Fill each fried plantain with the shrimp and corn mixture. Garnish with freshly chopped chives and serve hot.