I've said this before and I'll say it again: my grandmother can't cook. She loves to eat, but she can't really cook. Her oven is used for storage, she loves frozen meals, and her favorite kitchen tool is her microwave rice cooker.
So you can imagine I was surprised when she wanted to show me a new way to eat plantains. She called them arañitas, which translates to "little spiders." As someone who has and always will hate spiders, I was skeptical. My grandmother isn't an adventurous eater by any means, so these couldn't be that far out of left field. Funny enough, she wasn't going to make them for me. She was going to show me how she discovered them at Ybor City's Shrimp & Co. "It's delicious. You will like it." This phrase is much more visceral and transcending if you have heard her say it a million times in her unapologetic accent.
The arañitas arrives in a small dish, and I suddenly understood how the namesake came to be. Before me were unripened plantains that have been shredded into stringy spider legs and deep fried to golden crispness. Think of it as the plantain equivalent to shoestring fries. The main difference is that plantain starch is much stickier than potato starch, so as the plantains fried they glued themselves to each other, becoming a tangled web of crispy, salty strips. At the time, I was fascinated, as I was so used to traditional tostones and maduros. Of course, I would later discover this is a very traditional Puerto Rican way of preparing green plantains, and the cheeky name was not invented by Shrimp & Co.'s restauranteur. This still doesn't make arañitas any less exciting in my book.
There are probably a hundred different ways to make arañitas, as a Google image search will yield tons of pictures that at first appear similar before you realize they are all actually quite different. Some look like piles of shoestring fries, others resemble latkes or hash browns, a few look almost like granola clusters, and one chef even tried to shape their plantains into something that resembles a spider, complete with black olive eyes. When my grandmother attempted them at home with her table top deep fryer, she went for the latke approach (strange for a deep fryer), so my approach was always the same, but with a shallow fry. Forming them into veggie burger sized patties and shallow frying them seemed less fussy than making sure there was substantial oil for deep frying, and having something that completely held together meant I could use them as a vessel for dipping sauces or better yet a Benedict.
See, my wife loves Latin food. She also hates English muffins. The sheer mention of English muffins will send her into a tizzy. I wish I was kidding. She hates them almost as much as she hates sexists, racists, homophobes, transphobes, and slingback kitten heels. When we first moved into together, I made her what I called a Cuban Benedict (even though, as I mentioned, arañitas are technically Puerto Rican). I would fry plantains, top them with chorizo, then finish with a fried egg (I have yet to successfully poach an egg), and a simple doctored sour cream in place of hollandaise. It's been a staple in our rotation of "breakfast for dinner" for quite a few years now.
My grandmother may not be one to cook, but she can spot deliciousness a mile away, and she always knows I appreciate deliciousness.
With plantains and paprika,
~c.j.
BENEDICTO LATINO
PREP TIME: 10 mins
COOK TIME: 20 mins
YIELD: 2 servings
INGREDIENTS
vegetable oil, for frying
5 eggs, divided
2 firm unripe green plantains
1 tsp kosher salt + more to taste
1/2 tsp smoked paprika + more for sprinkling
1/2 lb. ground chorizo or 2 fully cooked chorizo links
1 tbsp lime juice (1/2 lime)
1/4 c. sour cream
1/8 tsp chipotle powder
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
cracked black pepper
DIRECTIONS
In a large frying pan, heat 1 inch vegetable oil over medium heat.
In a medium bowl, beat 1 egg. Peel the plantains by cutting an incision into the skin along the length of the plantain. Shred the peeled plantains on the large holes of a box grater. Add shredded plantains to bowl with the egg, along with 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp smoked paprika. Once the vegetable oil is heated (you will see wisps of smoke, you can test with a shred of plantain), form an arañita in your hands by making a ball in your palm with the plantains and squeezing out excess moisture. Place the ball into the hot oil, and flatten into a veggie burger sized patty using the back of a spoon. Continue the process with the remaining plantains to make a total of 4 arañitas. Allow to fry on each side about 5 minutes until bright golden yellow. Transfer to a cooling rack or paper towel lined plate, and sprinkle with additional salt and smoked paprika.
Meanwhile, cook your chorizo in a separate skillet over medium heat. If using ground chorizo, form 4 patties about the same size as your arañitas and pan fry until fully cooked, about 4 minutes per side. If using Mexican style fully cooked chorizo links, cut the links in half crosswise, then cut each of those halves lengthwise (you should have 8 pieces that each have a long flat side), and fry flat side down first about 4 minutes before turning and frying an additional 2-4 minutes.
Make the sauce: in a small bowl, combine lime juice, sour cream, chipotle powder, and a pinch of salt. Sprinkle with cilantro and stir again to combine.
Cook the remaining 4 eggs to your liking: fried, over easy, poached... dealer's choice!
Assembly: place 2 arañitas on each plate. Top each with a chorizo patty or two chorizo links, some crema, and an egg. Sprinkle with salt and cracked black pepper overtop. Serve with additional crema.
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