Plantain Filled With Cheese - Aborrajado

This is a common dish from Colombia specially from the pacific region. It is plantain filled with cheese and fried with a batter mixture.

For this preparation i'll use mozzarella cheese (You can use your favorite one) You can find aborrajados with guava paste (bocadillo) but i prefer for aborrajados just using cheese (i love the combination guava paste and cheese for snacks) For this dish is better to use fully ripe plantains (almost all black) but i did not get them and did not wanted to wait, also wanted to get a variety called "platano guayabo" cause it is use commonly for this dish, but did not found at the time. It is a really easy to prepare and delicius food.

In this preparation i used:

- 6 plantains

- 500gr of mozzarella cheese

- Flour

- Vegetable oil

- Salt - Color (a typical colombia seasoning i think it is Turmeric, added mostly for exacly that... color)

- One egg (you can make it without it)

With this i made eleven aborrajados.

Start by pealing your plantains and pre heat the oil on low. I cutted the plantains on half like on the photos as we want to slowly cook the plantain on the oil (You can do this on a grill or oven but this is faster and more typical).

Meanwhile cut the cheese to the size you want, i cutted it on sticks, and prepare the batter mixing flour with an egg, salt , seasoning and watter (i did not used measures but it is kind of watery as it is just for cover it and give it color)

We will use the plantain as a dough to cover the cheese, so put a plastic bag on the table and smash the fried plantains with a dish (it is really soft), put the cheese sticks in middle of the smashed plantain and cover it using the plantain as a dough.

Carefully put the plantain filled with cheese on the batter mixture and cover it nicely, then put it on the fry pan on high as the plantain is already cooked and we just want to fry the outside, take them out on 1-2 min once they are golden and crisp.

There You have it a typical Colombian dish to eat while drinking your coffee.

If you can find plantains on your region you should definitely try it, Use fully ripe plantains for more flavor. You can make a vegan version using tofu and without an egg.