Mangú con Los Tres Golpes

Ingredients

• 4 large green plantains
• 2 tbsp butter, plus more to finish
• 2 tsp fine salt, for the cooking water
• 2 large red onions, halved and sliced thin
• 80ml white vinegar
• 3 tbsp neutral oil, for the onions
• 1/2 tsp salt, for the onions
• 350g Dominican salami, cut into 1cm rounds
• 300g queso de freír or halloumi, cut into 1cm slabs
• 4 large eggs
• 3 tbsp neutral oil, for frying
• Black pepper, to taste

Before you cook

• Cut the tips off the plantains, score the skin lengthways along a ridge, and peel away the tough skin with your thumb.
• Cut each peeled plantain into three chunks.
• Halve the red onions and slice them as thinly as you can.
• Slice the salami into rounds and the cheese into slabs, and pat both dry with kitchen paper.

Steps

1. Put the plantain chunks in a saucepan, cover with cold water by five centimetres, and add two teaspoons of salt.
2. Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower to a steady simmer and cook for twenty minutes, until a knife slides through with no resistance.
3. Lift the plantains out with a slotted spoon into a large bowl, and keep the cooking water in the pan.
4. Add two tablespoons of butter to the hot plantains and mash hard with a sturdy fork or potato masher.
5. Splash in the reserved cooking water a little at a time, mashing between additions, until the mash is smooth, soft and free of lumps.
6. Cover the bowl to keep the mangú warm and set it aside.
7. Set a frying pan over medium heat with three tablespoons of oil, add the sliced red onions and half a teaspoon of salt, and cook for five minutes until they soften but keep some bite.
8. Pour the white vinegar over the onions and cook for two minutes, until the sharpness mellows and the liquid syrups down.
9. Scrape the onions and their vinegar into a bowl and set aside.
10. Wipe the pan, add three tablespoons of fresh oil, and set it over medium-high heat.
11. Fry the salami rounds for two minutes a side, until the edges curl and darken, then move them to a plate.
12. Lay the cheese slabs in the same pan and fry for two minutes a side, until a deep golden crust forms, then move them to the plate.
13. Crack the eggs into the pan and fry to your liking, three minutes for a set white and runny yolk.
14. Divide the mangú between four plates and make a shallow well in the centre of each.
15. Spoon the vinegared onions and their liquid into the wells.
16. Arrange the salami, fried cheese and a fried egg alongside each mound, grind over black pepper, and serve straight away.