A while back now we had some friends over for dinner, but instead of me doing all of the cooking our friend Stacy took over the controls and cooked up a delicious Latin meal.

Ben, Stacy’s husband, is from Peru and he met Stacy while she was spending a few years in Venezuela.  So yeah, they are both much more worldly than yours truly.  I’ve been fascinated with Latin food for some time now and it was a real treat for her to come over and show me how it’s done.
Our main dish for the meal was paper-thin skillet steaks breaded with flavorful bread crumbs and then quickly fried in oil.  My crappy picture here doesn’t do it justice.

Breading the steaks was pretty straightforward.  The thin steaks were dipped into an eggwash and then into the seasoned breadcrumbs.  We let them sit a bit before frying to allow the breadcrumbs to really stick. 

The steaks were then tossed into hot oil for a minute or so on each side, just until the breadcrumbs took on a nice golden brown color.

I’d never had breaded steak before, but these were fantastic and the went great with the rest of the meal.

A food that I’ve read a lot about, but never really had before was plantains.  After visiting a number of Mexican/Latin markets I’d seen them, but without knowing how to prepare them or what they should taste like I’ve never picked any up.  Unfortunately, when Stacy was cooking fresh plantains weren’t in season so she had me pick up a couple of boxes of frozen plantains.  There were two varieties at my local Giant Eagle: one was a sweet plantain and the other was more starchy, almost like a potato.

The more starchy plantains come frozen and are meant to be fried in a pan.  Boy, these Latin folks eat healthy.

For those of you that are uninitiated, plantains are really just a super-starch filled banana.  The frozen plantains are already pre-flattened, so all you need to do is let them thaw and bathe them in hot oil. 

They fry up very quickly and they look unbelievably good when they come out of the oil.  The consistency and taste is much liked a fried potato with the plantain being a bit more on the sweet side.

I’m really glad Stacy introduced me to these little guys as they have quickly become a staple in our household.  Not only are they versatile, they can fit into almost any meal, but also too they are cheap.  I like cheap.

Now, what probably was my favorite part, the beans:
Stacy started off the beans by rendering diced salt pork in a pan and then pouring in canned black beans.

As the beans cooked she added a number of spices including some Adobo seasoning that you can find at most grocery stores.

The beans cooked and softened to the point where they broke apart a bit when stirred. 

I’m not generally a big fan of beans, the consistency doesn’t appeal to me, but these were just great.  Not too mushy and not too chewy, just right.

Of course we also had some rice with our meal.  Your basic rice with some lime juice and cilantro, a great base for this meal.

I’m so glad that we’ve got friends like Ben and Stacy to help us to experience other cultures and foods we may never eat here in Ohio.  Stacy taught me a great deal and it was a wonderful meal.

Invite someone over for dinner tonight, you never know what you might learn.

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