Sofrito
This is my own recipe for sofrito:
Ingredients:
3 large green bell peppers
2 medium red bell peppers
40 - 60 stems of culantro
20 - 30 stems of recao
5 medium onions
4 heads of garlic
1 tbsp of salt
Procedure:
-
Get all the garlic cloves seperated
from each other. Put into a container and fill with water until the
garlic cloves are fully covered. Set aside. This will help
peel the garlic easier later on.
-
Wash the peppers, culantro, and recao.
Open the bell peppers and remove the stems and the seed from inside.
Cut the peppers into strips along the length about 1/4" wide. Set
these items aside.
-
Peel the onions and cut into 4 to 8
pieces each. At this time remove the garlic from the water and peel
the garlic.
-
Mix all the items in a blender or a
food processor, starting with the onions and the garlic, then adding peppers
and the culantro and recao. You might have to fill the blender more
than once. Mix until everything is pureed.
-
Pour the contents of the mixture into
a large container and add the salt. Mix by hand until the salt is
more or less evenly distributed.
-
Put a small amount of this mixture
in a container in the refrigerator for everyday use and store the rest
in the freezer.
Some people will add a small amount
of vegetable oil (corn oil or olive oil) with achoite (annato)
for coloring and flavor. There are other things that can be added,
such as oregano.