Cuchifritos refers to a particular genre of food in the Puerto Rican cuisine which is prepared using pork. It is served with exotic juices such as coconut juice, passion fruit juice, pineapple juice, or ajonjoli (a special sesame seed based drink). The term cuchifritos refers to fried parts of the pig in Puerto Rican language. Cuchi is derived from the word cochino which refers to a pig and frito refers to fried. Cuchifritos may also refer to the place which serves the pork based foods. In Spain, the word is normally used to refer to foods prepared using lamb or goat meat and is prepared by frying the meat with herbs in olive oil. Normally, the cuchifritos are enjoyed hot. In New York,, the cuchifritos’ vendors place their ads with attractive flash lights and large signs. Some of the popular cuchifritos recipes are chicharron (fried pork skin), morcilla (blood sausage), empanadas, beef patties, relleno de papa, and papas rellenas (fried potato balls stuffed with meat) etc.
Popular Cuchifritos Recipes
- Papas Rellena: This is one of the popular cuchifritos recipes, and is prepared by stuffing potato dough with the filling made of chopped beef, onions, hard boiled eggs, cumin and other spices. It is normally served with aji sauce or salsa criolla.
- Chicharron: This is one of the most favored recipes of all time. It is prepared from fried pork rinds. Various chicharron recipes are popular throughout Asia and South Africa.
- Empanadas: The empanadas or stuffed bread or baked pastry is popular throughout various South European and Latin American countries. Varieties of meat, vegetable and fruit stuffing are used to prepare this dish. Similarly the pork stuffed empanadas are also popular throughout the European continent.
- Beef Patties: It is one of the popular European dishes of all time. It is prepared by filling the pastry with ground beef, vegetables and cheese.
- Baccalitos: This is a codfish based cuchifritos dish which is prepared by combining ingredients such as codfish, salt, flour, pepper, adobo and sazon. The codfish is soaked in the batter prepared with the help of various spices, and fried.