Kelli Drummer-Avendaño
Sancocho
If you like dishes made with fresh ingredients, delectable spices, and plenty of rice and beans, you will love Dominican cooking! The food of the Dominican Republic showcases a blend of cultures—Taino, Spanish, and African. Most dishes are made from locally grown crops that are readily available. The list could go on forever, but some of the most typical foods include: rice, beans, corn, yams, avocados, plantains, coconuts, pineapples, mangoes, papayas, oranges, guavas, and white or black sapotes.
The Dominican Republic is known for two very traditional dishes—la bandera for lunch and el sancocho for dinner or special occasions. La bandera dominicana, which means the Dominican flag, consists of a large portion of rice covered with beans (usually red) and meat or fish with natural juices. Eaten with a large spoon and a knife to push the food onto the spoon, it is muy delicioso! It is often accompanied by fried green plantains and a small salad to complete the filling meal. El sancocho is a hearty stew made with several types of meats and fresh vegetables. There are many recipes for el sancocho that vary from region to region in the Dominican Republic. The following ingredients are for a traditional recipe that comes from the northeast part of the island.
Ingredients:
- Meat – chicken, beef, pork, and goat
- Plantains
- Potatoes – white and yellow, and yams
- Rice
- Onions
- Cassava or yucca
- Sour oranges (naranja agria), or lemon
- Spanish pumpkin
- Corn
- Yautia or malanga
- Green peppers
- Cilantro or coriander
- Garlic cloves
- Oregano
- Salt
- Water and/or meat stock
Explore More:
1. There are many recipes for el sancocho on the Internet. If you are interested in making this dish, research the specific amounts of the ingredients listed in the article and how to put them all together.
2. There may be ingredients listed in the recipe that you are not familiar with. Make a list of those you don’t know and investigate what they are.
3. Look up the Spanish names for all of the ingredients in the recipe. Which ones do you already know in Spanish?
Share What You Know:
1. Have you ever eaten el sancocho? What similar dishes do we have in the United States? How are they the same? How are they different?
2. Have you ever eaten plantains? How were they prepared? Did you like them? Compare and contrast them with bananas—how and where they grow, how they are prepared and eaten, and their appearance and taste.
3. Try preparing either la bandera or el sancocho. You might ask your family and consumer sciences teacher if you could prepare one of them in cooking class. Or, you could prepare one dish at home and bring it to class to share. You may need to omit or substitute some of the ingredients with items that are more readily available, as some might be difficult to find locally. If you have a Latin American grocery store nearby, you could check there for some of the ingredients.