Colombian · main

Bandeja Paisa

Bandeja Paisa reads richness 6.4, umami 6.3 and allium 3.9 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Colombian main, about 3 hr 41 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Richness 6.4 · Umami 6.3 · Allium 3.9 · Salinity 3.7 · Sweetness 3.5 · Sourness 2.3 · Earthy 2.0 · Fruity 2.0 · Smoke 1.8 · Warm Spice 1.7 · Nutty 1.2 · Bitterness 1.1 · Herbaceous 0.9 · Citrus 0.6

What's in it (16)

Time & effort: about 3 hr 41 min (3 hr 39 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 175 kcal, 4.6 g protein, 11.9 g fat, 12.7 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains egg — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (9 steps)

  1. A bandeja paisa is not a recipe so much as an assembly, and the argument in Medellín is only ever about what may be left off. The non-negotiables are the beans, the chicharrón, the rice, the egg and the arepa. Everything is cooked separately and lands on one very large platter at once, which is where the name comes from — bandeja is a tray.
  2. Beans first, since they take longest. Drain the soaked frijoles, cover them with 2 litres of fresh water, add the whole piece of green plantain and simmer 90 minutes, until the beans are soft and the plantain has half dissolved into them and thickened the pot. Salt only in the last 15 minutes.
  3. Make hogao, which seasons the beans and the beef both: warm 3 tbsp oil, soften half the onion for 6 minutes, add half the garlic, the cumin and achiote for 2 minutes, then the grated tomato, and cook it down for 12 minutes until it is jammy and the oil separates and pools orange. Stir half of it into the beans.
  4. For the chicharrón, score the pork skin at 1 cm intervals down to the fat, rub it with salt, and set it in a heavy pan with 200 ml of water. Cover and cook over medium heat for 40 minutes until the water is gone and the fat has begun to render, then uncover and cook 20 minutes more, turning, until the skin blisters and crackles hard and the meat underneath is tender. Cut into thick batons.
  5. Brown the ground beef in a little of the pork fat over high heat for 8 minutes, breaking it up, then stir in the remaining hogao and season. Grill or fry the chorizos for 10 minutes until they split and colour.
  6. Cook the rice by your usual method with the remaining onion, garlic and a spoon of the pork fat. Cut the rest of the plantain into 3 cm rounds, fry them in the oil at 160 C for 4 minutes, smash each flat between two boards, and fry again at 190 C for 2 minutes until deep gold and crisp — that is a patacón, and the double fry is what makes it.
  7. Fry the eggs sunny side up in the last of the fat. Warm the arepas on a dry griddle for 3 minutes a side.
  8. Assemble on the largest platter you own, per person: a bowl of beans, a mound of rice, the beef, a chorizo, two batons of chicharrón, a patacón, a fried egg, half an avocado and an arepa. It is a working man's plate from the coffee country and there is no small version of it.
  9. Substitutions: cranberry beans can stand in for the dried frijol cargamanto; shop-bought can stand in for the arepas de maíz.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.