This is a savory saucy dish made from canned corn beef (not corned beef hash) and it tastes awesome over white rice, macaroni, mashed potatoes, or creamed yuca.

Before the days of refrigeration on the island meat was preserved through salting, smoking and curing methods. Corning is a salting method using salt kernels the size of corn kernels, hence the name. It allowed for the importation of meat proteins not readily available fresh on the islands.

This recipe calls for canned corn beef, but you can use that which is found packaged in plastic as well. You just need 12 ounces of corned beef.

See Also

Food Reference - Definition of Corned Beef

Culinary Arts - What is Corned Beef?

Calories in Corned Beef

Ingredients

•  Vegetable oil (enough for sautéing and frying)
• 1 medium onion
• 1/2 large bell pepper
• 1 can (12 oz.) canned corn beef
• 1/8 cup Puerto Rican Sofrito (recaito)
• 2 tablespoons pimento stuffed Spanish olives (drained)
• 1 tablespoon capers (drained)
• 1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce (low sodium preferred)
• 1/2 cup low sodium beef broth
• 1 ripe (yellow) plantain
• 1 large potato
• pepper to taste

• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 25 minutes

• Total Time: 35 minutes
• Yield: 4 servings

Preparation

1. Prepare the vegetables by peeling and slicing the onion into strips, seeding and slicing the bell pepper into strips, peeling the plantain and cutting into 1 inch pieces, and peeling and dicing the potato. Prepare the canned corn beef by removing it from the can and shredding it.
2. In a large frying skillet that can be covered, heat the vegetable oil. When the oil is hot sauté the onion and pepper slices until just tender and translucent (about 5 minutes).

1. Add the shredded corned beef, Puerto Rican sofrito (also called recaito), tomato sauce, beef broth and olives. Stir everything together until well combined.
2. Cover the mixture with a lid, lower the heat to medium low, and cook the mixture for 10 minutes. Then, remove the frying pan from the heat and set aside.
3. In another frying pan, fry the plantains and potatoes until tender and done. Then drain them off on paper towels. If you don’t have another frying pan, you can use the one you made the beef mixture in. Just put the beef mixture in a bowl and set aside while you cook the potatoes and plantains.
4. Drain the oil from the pan. Add the potatoes, plantains and beef mixture back into the pan. Season with pepper to taste. You can add salt if you like, but you really don’t need to because the corned beef, capers, and olives are quite salty to begin with.
5. Serve the corned beef in tomato sauce mixture over a bed of hot white rice, plain macaronis, mashed potatoes, creamed yuca.