Getting To Know Boricua (Puerto Rican) Culture

By Alicia Cruz
Senior writer
Theblackurbantimes

¡Sabor Latina!

One of the first things I hear people say when they talk about a Puerto Rican home and cooking is the aroma. We're famous for using herbs and spices, in particular garlic, sofrito and adobo. These are the staples that give our meals ¡sabor latina! and that color we're famous for.
Adobo is made by crushing together peppercorns, oregano, garlic, salt, olive oil, and lime juice or vinegar, is rubbed into meats before they are roasted.

Sofrito is a green compilation of onions, garlic, coriander, and peppers browned in either olive oil or land and colored with achiote (annatoo seeds). These ingrediants give our foods that bright-yellow color.

OUR CULTURE
Culture is a series of visual manifestations and interactions with the environment that make a region and/or a group of people different from the rest of the world. Puerto Rico, without a doubt has several unique characteristics that distinguish their culture from any other. We are a colorful people as we represent a diverse cultural and racial mix of Taino Indian, African and Caribbean descent.
The cultural and racial mix began around the early 18-century, the Spaniard in order to populate the country took Taino Indian women as brides. As Puerto Rico grew, the importation of African slaves occured in order to build roads and maintain growing crops, followed by German, French and even Lebanese people.

The most dignificant immigrated populus to our country were La Cubanos. Thousands arrived during the 1960's to flee Fidel Castro's iron fisted Communist state. In the 1980's, fleeing the economically depressed. Dominican Republic, Dominicanos began immigrating to Puerto Rico.
So as you see, many of us are a mixture which, if you ask me, makes us such spicy, upbeat people and lends to the beauty and richness of our culture. Such intermingling has enabled the Island to develop into a diverse country (almost) without any racial disharmony.

COCINA CRIOLLA

Although Puerto Rican cooking is somewhat similar to Cuban and Mexican cuisine, it is a unique tasty blend of Spanish, African, Taíno, and American influences, using such indigenous seasonings and ingredients as coriander, papaya, cacao, nispero, apio, plantains, and yampee. Locals call their cuisine "cocina criolla".
Cocina criolla (Créole cooking) can be traced back to the Arawaks and Tainos, the original inhabitants of the island, who thrived on a diet of corn, tropical fruit, and seafood.

When Ponce de León arrived with Columbus in 1493, the Spanish added beef, pork, rice, wheat, and olive oil to the island's foodstuffs. Soon after, the Spanish began planting sugarcane and importing slaves from Africa, who brought with them okra and taro (known in Puerto Rico as yautia). The mingling of flavors and ingredients passed from generation to generation among the different ethnic groups that settled on the island, resulting in the exotic blend of today's Puerto Rican cuisine.
Lunch and dinner generally begin with sizzling-hot appetizers such as bacalaitos, crunchy cod fritters; surullitos, sweet plump cornmeal fingers; and empanadillas, crescent-shaped turnovers filled with lobster, crab, conch, or beef.

Soups are a popular beginning for meals on la isla. There is a debate about whether one of the best-known soups, frijoles negros (black-bean soup), is Cuban or Puerto Rican in origin. Nevertheless, it is still a savory, if filling, opening to a meal.

TRADITIONAL PUERTO RICAN DISHES
Arroz con Gandules, Carne Bif
Albondigas (Also a Mexican favorite), Arroz Amarillo
Arroz con Pollo, Arroz con Gandules
Carne Mechada, Lechón at horno
Pernil Al Horno, Alcapurrias
Bacalaitos, Chicharrones
Tostones
I could go on, but you get the idea.
Every Puerto Rican kitchen has at least one or two Claderos. These are important staples in Puerto Rican cooking along with a good pilón.

Quick, Time Saving Tips For Rican Cooking
Dice your yellow, red and green bell peppers and place in freezer. Don't store them in freezer longer than two months.

Sofrito frozen in ice cube trays and stored in freezer bags. That way you can use one or two cubes and leave the rest in the freezer. The small cubes defrost fast.

Don't have time to mince your garlic? Fine, store brand is just as good. The jar kind lasts long time because it's preserved in oil. One teaspoon minced garlic is about 1 clove.

Dice onions and freeze them. Store bought are just as good. Use what you need and reseal the bag. One small onion measures to about ½ cup.

Quick peeling for a plantain: Cut off both ends, cut lengthwise, peel, then drop them into hot water.

For fast and tasty arroz con pollo, use canned chicken and chicken broth.

Be sure to keep short-grain rice (Canilla is the only brand I use) on hand, canned beans to make a quick pot of habichuelas guisadas, tomato sauce, capers, sliced salad olives with pimientos, jars of roasted red bell peppers (pimientos morrones), garlic powder and flakes, oregano, achiote, Sazón Goya, adobo, and cans of beef and chicken broth for great tasting rice. Keep corned beef for "carne bif," plus canned diced Italian style tomatoes, olive oil and dry coconut flakes for besitos de coco.