Guatemalan cuisine
Rellenitos
Rellenitos de plátano
Balls of ripe plantain purée filled with sweetened black beans and chocolate.
- Prep
- 45 min
- Cook
- 45 min
- Total
- 90 min
- Difficulty
- Medium
Ingredients
- Ripe plantains — black-skinned6
- Black beans — cooked300 g
- Sugar120 g
- Dark chocolate80 g
- Cinnamon1 tsp
- Ground cloves½ tsp
- Flour60 g
- Oil for frying800 ml
- Icing sugar — to serve40 g
- Soured cream — to serve150 ml
- Salt1 pinch
Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.
Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.
Method
- 1
Boil the plantains in their skins for twenty minutes, until completely soft.
25 min
- 2
Peel them hot and mash them into a smooth purée with a pinch of salt and the flour.
10 min
- 3
Chill the purée for half an hour; warm, it will not hold as balls.
32 min
- 4
Mash the cooked beans and reduce them with the sugar, cinnamon and cloves to a thick paste.
20 min
- 5
Stir the chocolate into the hot bean paste and cool it completely.
20 min
- 6
Flatten a piece of purée on your palm, add the bean filling and seal it into a firm ball.
20 min
- 7
Fry at 170 °C for three minutes, to a browned crust, and serve with icing sugar and soured cream.
18 min
About the dish
The filling is sweet but made of beans. Black beans are reduced with sugar, cinnamon and chocolate into a paste — this is a dessert, and surprise at that is normal.
The plantain must be as ripe as possible, black-skinned. A yellow one stays starchy and the dough will not hold as a ball.
The purée is chilled before shaping. Warm it sticks to the hands and falls apart in the oil; cold it holds.
Worth knowing
- — The ball has to be sealed without gaps. Through any crack the filling escapes into the oil and starts to burn.
- — Wet your hands before each ball. Plantain purée sticks more than any dough.
- — Make the bean paste the day before. It thickens overnight and shaping becomes noticeably easier.
Nutrition
Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.
- Calories
- 480 kcal
- Protein
- 8 g
- Fat
- 16 g
- Carbs
- 78 g
More from Guatemala
- Pepián — Chicken in a thick sauce of toasted seeds and chillies. One of Guatemala's oldest dishes.
- Guatemalan tamales — Corn dough with meat and recado sauce, wrapped in banana leaf and steamed.
- Kak'ik — A red turkey soup with charred chillies and spices, a dish of the Q'eqchi' Maya.