Carmen Aboy Valldejuli was a detailed chef. Her most famous Puerto Rican Cookbook Cocina Criolla has stood the test of time for over 7 decades. When you open the beginnings of this book you can see why. It’s laden with details that you don’t find in today’s cookbook.
Puerto Rican Cookbook Cocina Criolla
As promised, I am going to take you on a step by step journey of the Puerto Rican Cookbook Cocina Criolla. The world-renowned Puerto Rican recipe book was recently given to me by my 93-year-old Grandmother, Petra Prado-Gonzalez. She gave it to me on June 1st of this year – after I discovered it was her secret cookbook of Puerto Rican ingredients – that was given to her as a wedding gift nearly 7 decades ago. The book is a bit worn but still in pretty good condition. My initial thumb through brought back memories of my boyhood days in Miami, where she would cook up Arroz con Pollo with white rice – topped with black beans and we’d finish it off with some amazing flan. She might even marinate the chicken in some Puerto Rican Mojo just to make me smile.
Today’s cookbooks are more about flash, superstar chefs, and the brand that they’re beholden to. But this book is so basic in its principles that it screams authenticity. Chef Valldejuli gives you every detail from utensils, pots, pans, measuring cups to thermometers that you’ll need to make your meal right.
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You can buy Cocina Criolla in PDF. It’s also available in Spanish…or English. But when I searched the internet it’s not that easy to find. So check out various sites to see what you come with. Me personally I love books available in PDF form because I can easily save them in a folder on my desktop, I can email them to myself for casual reading, and best of all scroll through very fast.
The pages before the first chapter finishes with a paragraph on Sofrito. The Puerto Rican cooking base for just about everything.
So as I leave you with another journey of Cocina Criolla, I will post this Sofrito recipe. I hope you have the opportunity to get your hands on this amazing cookbook if you haven’t already. Love, Laugh and Enjoy one another. See you soon. Mike G
Ingredients
- 2 medium green bell peppers (stemmed and seeded)
- 1 red bell pepper (stemmed and seeded)
- 2 large tomatoes
- 2 medium onions (peeled)
- 1 head of garlic (peeled)
- 1 bunch fresh cilantro leaves
- 1/2 bunch fresh parsley leaves
Steps to Make It
- Gather the ingredients.
- Chop the ingredients into sizes that are small enough to fit into a food processor or blender. You don’t have to dice them finely as you will be processing them. Focus on removing the seeds and any tougher stems that might leave grit in the finished sofrito.
- Place the chopped ingredients into a food processor or blender. You can process in batches if your food processor isn’t big enough to accommodate everything at once.
- Blend all ingredients well. You want the finished sofrito to be finely processed. If you’re not familiar with sofrito, think of it as being the consistency of pesto, a thick paste.
- Once blended, your sofrito is ready to use. For immediate use, store the sofrito in a glass container. Plastic containers are not ideal because plastic will absorb the odor of garlic and onions.
- Use the sofrito with rice, stews, beans, or protein and enjoy.
Tips
- If you find it necessary to add liquid, you may add water or olive oil a tablespoon at a time while blending. Use as little liquid as possible, because you don’t want the sofrito to be too runny. The tomatoes will provide some juice, so you may want to ensure they are in the mix before adding any liquid.
- For future use, you can freeze the sofrito to use at any time. Depending on how much you use in a recipe, you may want to freeze it in 1/4 to 1/2 cup portions or freeze it in an ice-cube tray for 2-tablespoon cubes. After the cubes are frozen, place them in a freezer bag. They should be good for up to a year frozen.
Sofrito Recipe from Cocina Criolla
Ingredients
- 2 medium green bell peppers stemmed and seeded
- 1 medium red bell pepper stemmed and seeded
- 2 large tomatoes
- 2 medium onions peeled
- 1 head garlic peeled
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1/2 bunch fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- Gather the ingredients. Sofrito recipe ingredients
- Chop the ingredients into sizes that are small enough to fit into a food processor or blender. You don’t have to dice them finely as you will be processing them. Focus on removing the seeds and any tougher stems that might leave grit in the finished sofrito.Chopping garlic and onion
- Place the chopped ingredients into a food processor or blender. You can process in batches if your food processor isn’t big enough to accommodate everything at once. Put chopped ingredients into a blender
- Blend all ingredients well. You want the finished sofrito to be finely processed. If you’re not familiar with sofrito, think of it as being the consistency of pesto, a thick paste. Blend well
- Once blended, your sofrito is ready to use. For immediate use, store the sofrito in a glass container. Plastic containers are not ideal because plastic will absorb the odor of garlic and onions. Fresh sofrito in jars
- Use the sofrito with rice, stews, beans, or protein and enjoy.
Notes
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I bought this book when I got married and saved my marriage. My husband also learned how to cook with it. It is very authentic to the Puerto Rican food. It is the best. It was also used in schools in the Economía Doméstica Classes!
I bought the recipe book when I got married back in 1989 because I did not know how to cook many things. I love this book because it is filled with many recipes and the conversions for measurements. To this day, I still use it to try a different recipe.
Bellísima entrada en Facebook de esta nota de un libro que es un compañero sabio!
David, I think your recipe is calling for parsley but the original is calling for culantrillo which is really cilantro. Our sofrito doesn’t normally use parsley
Mike .. for a moment I thought you were my son.. did a double take.. truly
Also I have my grandmothers cook book ..same one
my mom took it,, then my older sister took it and now I have it.
I turned 75 on the 14th so.. my mom would have been 105 if she were alive sooooo.
this would be a very old book for sure.
My issue is that i dont know all the root vegetables in english’ think about writing a supplement or a dictionary that can be sold for use using puerto rican cook books.
$$$ just sayin
Eileen Corona
Tallahassee, FL
I have the same book, and the condition is a little bit worse, but I will be 60, and I Lear how to cook since I was 9. My children also had use it to cook. Is the best cooking book ever. 🍴🙋🙋🙋👍👍👍
love the recipes in this book—thank you
My grandmother gave me a copy of this cookbook. I cherish it.
Wow I have the same book but it’s a little more worn out then yours. It belonged to my Grandma also. When she passed it became mine.
I have two different editions of this book. I Love it. The oldest one even have no cover. Is to old but I still keeping. I’m cheff and those books are my references book.
I ordered this book and can’t wait to really disect it. I love Puerto Rican food and its history. I want to learn as much as I can about this awesome food. If anyone can help me to learn more and where to get the most authentic and/or practical items , please help. What are the best authentic Puerto Rican cookbooks, best ‘Authentic Style’ Chefs/Cooks/Food Historians? and most ‘Innovative’ Puerto Rican Cuisine Chefs/Cooks