Today I’m going to show you how to make Puerto Rican sofrito the WIMZ way (well… it’s actually my mommas way but that’s our little secret). It’s a must have in my kitchen. I mean after all, what’s a Puerto Rican kitchen without sofrito. When ever we run low on sofrito, my daughter says “we have a problem”.
You’re probably wondering “what is sofrito?” Sofrito is the base to many Puerto Rican dishes comprised of herbs and vegetables and is very simple to make, provided you can find the ingredients in your local food market. If you’ve had Spanish yellow rice, it’s usually made with it. We also put it into our beans, soups and stews. It’s what gives it that “latin flavor”. Surely you can purchase a jar of sofrito from your local food market but this girl right here prefers the home made version over store bought.
So enough with the jibber-jabber and lets get on with it.
The ingredients you’re going to need are as follows:
- Two green bell peppers
- Two red bell peppers
- one small bag of onions
- two bunches of cilantro (Coriander)
- small packet of ajicitos (sweet ajicitos)
- small tub of peeled garlic
- *Recao (If you can find it)- one bunch
Appliances needed: Either a food processor or blender
Ajicitos: Rinse the ajicitos, removing the stems. Remove the seeds on the inside. Some people don’t mind the seeds but I prefer to take them out.
Quick tip: I pinch them open under a bowl filled with cold water. Somehow, they make me cough when I do it any other way.
Next take your onions, peel them and cut them into quarters so that they will blend well in your food processor/blender.
Rinse your bell peppers and remove the seeds and cord. Then cut into big chunks so that it be easier to blend in the food processor or blender. In this case, I used 3 green bell peppers and one red one. But I usually use two and two (2 red, 2 green).
I usually purchase a small tub of already peeled garlic but in this case I had some garlic heads at home and took advantage of them. I used about 3 heads (sounds like a lot but it’s not).
Rinse your cilantro really well as they usually come with a lot of grit and dirt. I like to place them in a big bowl of cold water, shake them up so the grit/dirt falls to the bottom of the bowl and rinse. I place them in a salad spinner to take out all the excess water so that my sofrito doesn’t come out too watery. Do the same with the Recao (I couldn’t find the picture of the recao).
One thing about Recao. Not many market’s carry Recao. I usually have to drive to my local Latin food market to get my Recao. Recao is excellent in chicken soup. It’s kind of like coriander but a bit stronger in flavor. It is a popular Caribbean herb and it is sometimes called Culantro. If you’re not able to find it, do not fret. You can make your sofrito without it and it will be just as good. However, if you can get your hands on some, it will help enhance the flavor of your sofrito.
Once you have all your ingredients prepped, it’s time to blend. I make my sofrito in my food processor because I make a big batch to store in my freezer. If you’re using a blender, you may have to blend it in small amounts so that it can blend well. Place in a large bowl so that once it’s all been blended, you can stir altogether before storing in your fridge or freezer. I usually fill a mason jar and stick it into my fridge so that it’s ready to use for the week. The rest I place in ice cube trays (I have a set of ice cube trays specifically for sofrito. You do not want to utilize your regular ice cube trays for this). Once frozen, place them in zip lock bags.
So there you have it. Easy Peezy, Lemon Squeezy. Not everyone makes their sofrito the same but it’s the way I learned to make it from my mom and since I had to make some for myself, I thought it would be nice to share it with you.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your read hear at WIMZ.
Let me know how you make your sofrito.
Adios,
Banessa
