Bolones (Ecuadorian Plantain Dumplings)

Hey, Alicia here again. Today I'm going to talk about bolones and how you make them.

My husband is from Ecuador and lucky for me the food from Ecuador is really delicious and also luckily, he really enjoys making it for me. Ecuadorian food is full of flavor but not spicy hot..

Anyways, one of my favorite things he makes are these bolones. Basically it's fried plantain smashed and formed into a ball with some other ingredients.  It's delicious to eat on its own or we like it with a fried egg on top too.

These have queso fresco and bacon in them.

In Ecuador these are usually eaten for breakfast. And instead of bacon, it's more common to get them with chicharrones. Chicharrones in Ecuador are fried bits of really fatty pork. This is different than in other countries like Mexico or countries in Central America where chicharrones are essentially pork rinds. But we don't have chicharrones here in the USA, so we use bacon. Thick sliced bacon is the best we think because then you can make them into lardons basically and it's similar to chicharrones.

Also the cheese in Ecuador is not exactly the same as queso fresco, but similar enough that it is a good substitute. My husband says that Ecuadorian cheese is fresh like queso fresco, but saltier. For this reason, sometimes "a bit of feta is added to get the required saltiness that they yearn from their homeland." On a scale the saltiness of Ecuadorian cheese is somewhere between queso fresco and feta cheese.

Ok on to how to make these delights! Click through the gallery below to see the process.

I'll post the recipe below, but these are really easy to make. Here's some tips:

• If your plantain is more brown it's sweeter, just like a banana. (That's my favorite way to eat bolones.)
  
• If they are greener you may want to add some butter while mashing the plantains (like you would do with mashed potatos). This will keep the bolones from being too dry.
• Other add-ins can be used like green onion or cilantro. You can also do just cheese or just bacon.
• Some people refry the bolones after they're formed, but we never do.

Bolones

*Also for baking the bacon, I just did it at 350 F until it looked crispy and smelled delicious. And to keep the bacon from being too greasy, I accordian folded the foil and placed the bacon across the top of that. It allowed the excess grease to go down into the pan and the bacon still got crispy. I did this because the first time I baked bacon it was swimming in grease and it wasn't as enjoyable. (I know that seems impossible).  Or, to save time you could purchase the pan like the one below!