Tacacho con Cecina

Ingredients

• 6 green plantains
• 150 g pork crackling, roughly chopped
• 80 g pork lard
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 500 g cecina (smoked cured pork), sliced
• 2 regional chorizo sausages (optional)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 cocona or 1 firm tomato, diced
• 1 red onion, finely diced
• 1 ají charapita or bird's eye chilli, minced
• juice of 1 lime

Before you cook

• Score the skin of each green plantain lengthways from tip to tip.
• Chop the pork crackling into rough pieces the size of a fingernail.
• Mince the garlic and the chilli finely.
• Dice the cocona or tomato and the red onion for the salsa.
• Slice the cecina into pieces about a centimetre thick.

Steps

1. Heat the oven to 200C.
2. Lay the scored plantains on a baking tray and roast them for 25 minutes, until the flesh is soft and the skins have split wide open.
3. Peel the hot plantains and drop the flesh into a large mortar or a sturdy bowl.
4. Melt the lard in a small pan and stir the minced garlic through it for 1 minute.
5. Pour the garlic lard over the plantain and pound it into a coarse, heavy mash.
6. Work the chopped crackling and the salt into the mash while it is still hot.
7. Shape the mash into four tight balls, pressing hard so that they hold together.
8. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat.
9. Fry the cecina slices for 3 minutes a side, until the edges char and the fat runs out.
10. Fry the chorizo in the same pan for 6 minutes if you are using it.
11. Mix the cocona, red onion, chilli, lime juice and a pinch of salt for the salsa.
12. Put a tacacho ball on each plate with the cecina beside it and spoon the salsa over the top.