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Tostones. What a Naranja Agria Mojo Can Do For Its Goodness!

Yes it’s fall and yes the temperature is dropping. Chillier ambiance means a completely different crop is in season. No more lemon meringue pies, blueberry jams, ice creams or orange sherbert.

But, in my kitchen, there are no rules (other than NOT putting your hand in my pressure cooker to pull out some flank steak as I’ve had a client so boldly do). Blueberries and other summer fruits are in the freezer and the yet-to-be-finished red wine ice cream will be finished before the end of the month. That’s to say that if there’s a certain food that’s calling my name, I will attack it no matter its untimely harvest or availability.

This is only an issue because there are so many things I didn’t get to make this summer and now it’s kind of, ‘well, there’s always next summer.’ And then there’s the professional faux pas of serving things out of season, like tomatoes. Some don’t care while others are sticklers for not ever putting a tomato on a plate during winter.

I totally digress in my point.

And, honestly, I think I started with wanting to say how irrelevant it is that a navel orange is of this summer’s past. But, it really isn’t. Oranges are good year round, especially if you’re going for the sweet variety. This makes me all the more content knowing I won’t have to pass up on some serious good eats just because “it’s” out of season.

Like homemade mojo, where naranga agria is one of main ingredients in the seasoning sauce. And more importantly, at least this and next week, plantains in every which way!

Sweet fried plantains, fufu (or mofongo as Puerto Rican’s call it), cheese stuffed plantain balls, mariquitas, and my fave, tostones, are on the cookery agenda over here! My decision to eat them this and all next week is really a stealth attempt at redeeming my PLANTAIN POST, which was super well-recieved and great in informative content but embarrassingly shoddy in photography! What can I say? It was published within the first month of food blogging.

But, I’m here to make it all better. In this first case, at least a better attempt. Not exactly how I wanted to present them to you, but there’s good reason. See, I had no intention of even starting the redemption process until mid-November. But, my lawyer and I had great reason to celebrate this week and I invited him over for dinner. With two hours notice, he requests saffron rice, oxtails and tostones.

Seriously, papa!

(iPhone shot as I cooked)

Tostones it was. I had three sitting on my counter, waiting to ripen so it all just worked out. Though I love tostones in all its simplistic form, with a dash of sea salt sprinkled throughout, I had this taste bud begging for tons of garlic and some acidity. Really some sugar. Tostones aren’t anywhere near being as caramelized like the platanitos fritos I make so often. So, I was looking for a happy spot. Plus, the oxtails are so robust, I definitely needed something to balance it all out.

Et, voila! A garlic and naranja agria mojo it was! You can imagine it, right?! The fragrance of the super sweet orange I had was perfect and the amount of garlic was enough to knock out a cold! The pink sea salt was the final touch that made this staple side dish so special.

As I was cooking, my lawyer got excited and asked me to take some pics… Plantain press in one hand, tongs in another and somehow my iPhone in between, I was able to capture the above shot.

Right before we sat down to eat, I took two minutes to use my real camera and take the 1st and 3rd pics, hence it’s lack of proper plating or even composition. But, you get the gist. They were aaahmazing! I’ll give myself a gimme on these pics, especially since the redo of the plantain post won’t occur til next month. Maybe then, I’ll include the real shot I want. 😉

For publication reasons, I kindly won’t share the mojo recipe because I had a few other secret ingredients in there, but I will totally encourage you to play around with garlic and orange and make it work with your plantains! A combination you will be glad to make friends with! It’s genuinely one that will have you doing all kinds of happy dances!

If you don’t know the process for tostones, read that original post and buy yourself a tostonera. Great kitchen artillery to have from now on!

Eat well, love unapologetically, pray with true intention, and take care of yourself.

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52 thoughts on “Tostones. What a Naranja Agria Mojo Can Do For Its Goodness!

  1. Carlos and I had tostones with mojo while in Miami and fell in love. When we came back home we looked up recipes and made them ourselves. They actually turned out fantastic. One of my favorites, too. Yum!

  2. This mojo sounds absolutely heavenly. I once mentioned sour oranges to some coworkers as an ingredient my mm uses is so much of her cooking and they looked at me like I was crazy. Don’t knock it til you try it is what I told them. It’s a unique taste that adds a little umph to our cooking. I can only imagine how heavenly it is in the mojo atop these tostones. I’m a huge platano head, so I will eat them however I can get them. But with this mojo I know these tostones are just extra special.

  3. This mojo recipe sounds heavenly delish! I’m not a fan of mixing sweet and savory but your post is making me rethink that position.

  4. Tostones , garlic and orange! I love the 3 of them and I know I would love to try this amazing receipe! I also love the fact that you don´t care about the season to create your own receipes! that´s great, because any season is amazing to enjoy your creativity 😉

  5. I adore tostones and can eat them every day. But I’m a bit of a Plan Jane when I comes to how I prepare them. This recipe gives me something to think about. Maybe I will venture out icky comfort zone!

  6. Tracy: ooh, so glad you made them for yourself. so addictive, right!

    Eliana: exactly! we use it in a lot of food, too and it gives it a great acidic or sweet touch! especially in chicken! ooh wee!

    Yoly: we’re going to have to change that!

    Eliana: who.cares!?! 😉 and yes, the 3 together are heavenly!

    Rosa: I’m surprised you’ve not tried making these before. You.must.

    Lisa: Anyone who doesn’t like tostones is cookoo…for real!

    Suj: can’t be plain Jane when it comes to goodness, mija. Step outside your comfort zone. Y me das las gracias mas tarde!

  7. Girl! these were soooo good! I loved how you added the orange to it. Thanks for sharing with your neighbor!

  8. I’ll never look at plantains the same way ever again. Just wondering why you didn’t speed dial me to let me know you were hooking this up. I would have come by to taste some of them just so I could give my opinion. 🙂

  9. Tostones de platano pinton area the BEST!! Great post, great pics, great mojo recipe! Can’t wait to have some.

  10. We really need to get back into the sharing food/test eater roles for one another…I haven’t had tostones in ….forever! I.want. these. 🙂

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