Pabellón Criollo (Venezuelan National Plate)

About This Recipe

Pabellón criollo is Venezuela's flag on a plate. The name means 'creole flag' and refers to the four mounded components that make up the dish — white rice for the central white stripe, black beans (caraotas negras) for the dark tones, shredded beef (carne mechada) in a deep red sofrito for the Spanish blood inheritance, and golden fried sweet plantains (tajadas) curving along the edge of the plate. Each component is a small masterpiece in its own right and is cooked separately. The beef — flank or skirt steak is traditional — is gently simmered for hours with onion, bell pepper and bay until it pulls apart in long strands, then shredded by hand and returned to a fresh sofrito of garlic, onion, red and green bell pepper, tomato, cumin and a pinch of brown sugar, where it absorbs the sauce into every fiber. The black beans are slow-cooked from dried until creamy and just bursting, seasoned with garlic, onion, bay and a touch of sweet sugar that defines the Caribbean style. The rice is plain long-grain, fluffy and clean. The plantains must be black-ripe — sweet, soft, the colour of caramel when fried in shallow oil. The plate is assembled in clear quadrants, not mixed: each diner spoons across the boundaries to make their own combinations. Eaten across Caracas, Maracaibo and Mérida every Sunday, at family lunches, restaurant comidas corridas and at every Venezuelan diaspora celebration from Miami to Madrid, pabellón criollo is the dish that tastes most fundamentally of home for any Venezuelan.

Ingredients

Serves 6

• 1 kgflank or skirt steak, in two pieces (the carne mechada)
• 2yellow onions, plus 2 red and 2 green bell peppers, plus 6 garlic cloves
• 3Roma tomatoes, peeled and chopped, plus 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 350 gdried black beans, soaked overnight (the caraotas negras)
• 1 tbspbrown sugar plus 1 tsp ground cumin (for the beans)
• 400 glong-grain white rice, well-rinsed (the arroz blanco)
• 4very ripe (mostly black-skinned) plantains, peeled and sliced lengthways (the tajadas)
• neutral oil, sea salt, black pepper, bay leaves, and 1 fried egg per person (optional 'a caballo')

Instructions

1. 1

   Simmer the beef

   Place flank steak in a heavy pot with 1 quartered onion, 1 chopped bell pepper (any colour), 3 garlic cloves, 2 bay leaves and 2 tsp salt. Cover with cold water by 2 cm. Bring to a boil, skim foam, then reduce to lowest simmer and cook covered 90 minutes until meat pulls apart easily with a fork. Lift meat out and reserve 500 ml of the strained broth; discard solids.

   Cool the meat slightly before shredding so you don't burn your hands.

2. 2

   Cook the black beans (parallel)

   In a separate pot, place drained soaked beans with 1.5 l fresh water, 1 quartered onion, 2 garlic cloves and 1 bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then simmer covered 75 minutes until beans are creamy and skins are just starting to burst. Add 1 tsp salt, the brown sugar and cumin in the final 10 minutes only — adding salt earlier toughens the bean skins.

3. 3

   Shred the beef

   While the meat is still warm, shred with two forks (or hands wearing gloves) into long, thin strands — true mechada strands are 5–6 cm long, not chopped. Set aside.

4. 4

   Make the sofrito and finish the meat

   In a wide skillet, heat 3 tbsp oil over medium heat. Finely dice the remaining onion and both bell peppers (red and green) and sweat 8 minutes until soft. Add minced garlic and cook 60 seconds. Stir in chopped tomatoes and tomato paste, season with salt, pepper and a pinch of cumin, and cook 6 minutes until pulpy. Add the shredded beef and 250 ml reserved broth and simmer 15 minutes until the meat has absorbed most of the liquid and the mixture is moist but not soupy.

5. 5

   Cook the rice

   In a saucepan, heat 1 tbsp oil over medium, add the rinsed rice and toast 2 minutes. Add 800 ml hot water and ½ tsp salt. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce to lowest heat and cook 15 minutes. Rest off heat 8 minutes, then fluff with a fork.

6. 6

   Fry the plantains

   Slice each plantain lengthways into 4 strips. Heat 1 cm neutral oil in a wide skillet over medium heat. Fry plantain strips 2 minutes per side until deep caramel-golden and tender (a knife should go through easily). Drain on paper towel; they'll become slightly crisp at the edges and tender inside.

7. 7

   Plate the flag

   On each wide plate, mound rice in one quarter, black beans in another, shredded beef in the third, and fan plantain strips in the fourth. Keep the quadrants visually separate. For pabellón a caballo (with horse), top with a fried egg whose yolk runs down into the rice when broken. Serve immediately.

Variations

• •

  Pabellón a caballo — top each plate with a fried egg, yolk runny.

• •

  Pabellón con baranda — add a fence (baranda) of fried plantain strips standing around the edges.

• •

  Pabellón vegetariano — replace beef with shredded jackfruit cooked the same way in the sofrito.

• •

  Margarita style — top with fried fish strips instead of beef, an eastern coast variation.

Storage

Store all four components separately, refrigerated 4 days. Plantains lose crispness on day 2; re-fry briefly to revive. Beef sauce and beans freeze beautifully 3 months. Reheat each component separately and reassemble.

Frequently Asked Questions