Homemade Peruvian Pork and Tostones

Today we made Tostones and Ruth's mom made pork for lunch.  We discovered the tostones a while ago and Ruth's mom decided to make the pork, normally a traditional holiday (new years day) meal in Peru.

Pork

The pork was seasoned with achiote pepper, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper. It was cooked in the oven for 6 hours, until it fell off the bone.  It was then served with steamed rice and applesauce.  The Pork was well seasoned and tasted awesome.

Tostones

First attempt at making tostones. Tostones are twice fried green plantains seasoned with salt. 

We discovered tostones at the Havana Cafe in Phoenix and fell in love with them.  They are a Latin American and Carribean speciality.  They can be slightly sweet to starchy, depending on the ripeness of the plantain.

When making the tostones, we came across two different methods for making them.  One method involved soaking them in salty water after the first fry session, while the other method skipped this step and required sprinkling salt on them as the final step.  We preferred the soaking method as this made them crunchier and saltier.  Tasty!

Conclusions

The pork turned out awesome because it is pork and Ruth's mom is a great cook.  The tostones, being our first attempt, were good to average.  We will definitely make another attempt.